Senior year with bleach!
by kuroneko187687
Summary: Ella is a normal American teen, in her senior year.All she wanted was to get through the year but what happens when she gets some unexpected visitors, from bleach!How is she going to deal with them?What secrets will be uncovered as she gets to know them? and will she be able to survive her senior year and get them back?Maybe, if they don't destroy the neighborhood... ToshiroxOC
1. Chapter 1: Who are you?

Okay! This is my first fan fiction, finally, I have way to many ideas and absolutely no time to write so I may update irregularly, anyway here it is

Also just to make sure, I do not own Bleach or any of it's characters, only my OC's

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**Chapter 1: Who are you?**

"See you tomorrow" I waved to Ana leaving the bus stop, I never took the bus but I always walked there with Ana since it was on my way home. Slowly pulling my iPod out from my bag as I started the trek home, enveloping myself in my thoughts and music, to drown out the noises of the cars beside me.

It had been one month since the the start of the new school year, and my final year of high school, and things were finally starting to quiet down. So much had happened in the past two months that It felt like a tornado had blown through my life. My parents had been given the opportunity to work overseas for a year but it had left me and my little brother with little options either go with them or take care of ourselves for a year, we chose the latter not wanting to transfer schools(me more so being my senior year). Then my little brother up and decided to live with a friend instead of living with me, leaving me to take care of our 2200 sq. ft house by myself. Ugghhh... now I didn't hate cleaning but keeping that big a space clean isn't an easy job.

One of the few upsides to staying in the house though was the area, I was in walking distance of _everything_, my school, the grocery, even a cool shopping plaza with a cheap theater, so the perks balanced out the negatives.

I was then brought out of thoughts as I noticed The general area get quieter(even with headphones the cars could still always be heard) and noticed I had turned onto my street. I then pulled out my ear buds and savored the peace and quiet that this time of day brought.

It was a Friday so the peace wouldn't last long but the elementary kids were still in school and no cars could be heard in they quiet afternoon before rush hour. Oh how she loved these rare moments...

After I had had my moment, I rushed home to finish my homework so I could then indulge myself in some well deserved relaxation.

* * *

With a long sigh and huge yawn I dragged myself into my bed.

I had stayed up too late.

Again...

I always got so caught up in reading manga and fan fiction or watching anime that I completely forgot the time.

The clock said 1:07A.M.

I didn't have school tomorrow it being a Friday and all but I didn't want to slip into summer habits again, that would just lead to a disaster.

So I dragged myself into bed only to be startled with a flash from outside which instantly glued my attention to my window, I tried looking into the front yard from my bedroom window on the second floor but whatever had caused the flash of light had disappeared, leaving the yard dark and without any light to see what had caused the flash.

I tried squinting into the darkness but to no avail, I was either going to dismiss the light completely or go and investigate.

My curiosity got the best of me as slipped downstairs and put on a pair of sandals. Then cautiously opened my front door and stepped into the cool night air. I made my way off the front porch to round the large bush that separated the porch from the front yard only to stop at the end of the wall of bush and peak my head around to get a look into the yard, only to be met with nothing I had expected.

There were people lying unconscious in my yard!

Seven people to be exact. In that moment I freaked out gaping in shock at the situation lying before me, I had to do something about this but what?!

I eventually recovered from my shock and decided that having them unconscious wasn't going to get anything resolved and slowly approached the one closest to me deciding to wake the boy up.

He was laying on his stomach in the grass so I couldn't see his face but his small stature, shockingly white hair and weird clothes made me hesitate to wake him up but... I couldn't leave them lying there so I gently started shaking him and said meekly "Ummm... are you alright? Can you hear me?"

With a groan I heard him start to move and I flinched, instantly stepping away from the boy.

I then noticed that the groaning from the noise had made the other unconscious people in the yard start to rustle and wake up as well. I just watched as the people started to stir awake, it was too dark to see any of them clearly but the sheer oddity of the situation was making me keep my distance from them.

"Ughhh... what's going on here?" a boy with I saw had strikingly bright orange hair said

"I don't know but I'm having trouble pinpointing our location" a short girl with dark hair said seemingly facing the orange haired boy.

"Captain! Where are you! Oh! There you are!" a woman with a curvy figure and flowing orange locks said cheerily as she practically suffocated the short white haired boy in her hug.

The three other men just watched the two pairs not sure what to do until one of the three, with bright red hair I might add, noticed me cowering behind the bushes. I couldn't see his face in the darkness but I had seen him look in my direction then turn and walk towards the white haired boy whispering into his ear.

After the red haired man pulled away from the boy I saw the boy snap his head in my direction and say commandingly "You there behind the the bushes, come out!"

His command turned everyone's attention to me, making me nervously step out from behind the bush, with my eyes to the ground scared to look at them.

Another command came as soon as I had emerged from the bushes"Where are we?"

I flinched at the boy's tone but still responded "I-In my front yard"

The boy wasn't satisfied with that response though as anger laced his voice "Country?"

"U.S.!" I said quickly not wanting to receive any wrath from these people

This seemed to faze them as they all visibly flinched as if shocked by what I had just told them.

Who were these people? They didn't seem normal and there clothes were anything but that, they almost looked like...

"Captain Hitsugaya, I can't get through to Seireitei, all I get is static" the little girl with dark hair said

My head snapped to face the white haired boy and then I walked closer to him, as shock and confirmation of my thoughts settled as I got a better look at the boys face.

"Toshiro Hitsugaya?!" I almost screamed but stopped myself as I remembered what time it was.

The boy looked back at me in surprise but his face then changed to one of caution as he questioned "How do you know my name?"

I started to panic and think of a rational answer, but then realized there wasn't one, this wasn't exactly a rational situation either. I thought about how to explain but then shivered as the cool fall night caught up with me.

I looked the captain in the eyes as he was staring me down(or rather up, I was taller than him by a good few inches) and finally spoke "I'll try and explain.. the best I can but can we all go inside It's cold out here" I continued looking at the captain and then glanced at the rest of the group making sure they heard me.

Toshiro looked apprehensive to follow me in the house but eventually relaxed slightly and followed me inside motioning the rest to follow as well.

As I led them inside I returned to my thoughts, _How had this happened? How was this even possible?_

_Why were characters from **Bleach** in my world?! **In my house?!**_


	2. Chapter 2: Midnight Discussion

Yeah! Chapter two! Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any of it's characters

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**Chapter 2: Midnight Discussion**

I Stood in my Kitchen looking into my living room at the impossible sight that lay out before my eyes. Sitting in my living room were characters from one of my favorite manga/anime, Bleach.

Renji Abarai, Ikkaku Madarame, and Yumichika Ayasegawa were on the couch, Renji and Ikkaku looking impatient, while Yumichika took in his surroundings

Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki sat together on the oversized chair glaring at each other, they had been arguing about something while we walked inside but I was in a daze taking in the the current reality and had missed what it was about.

Lastly, Toshiro Hitsugaya was in the recliner with with his arms folded across his chest trying to drown out his lieutenant, Rangiku Matsumoto's whining about how cold he was being for not making room for her to sit.

I then opened my fridge and grabbed a frappuccino from inside the door, it was late and I was gonna need caffeine to get through this explanation.

I proceeded to walk into the living room grabbing the ottoman from the oversized chair and repositioning it so we were in a makeshift circle. I sipped my frappuccino as I stared at the bleach characters as they stared back at me neither seeming to want to say anything.

Toshiro finally spoke though "You said we were in the U.S., Where exactly in the U.S.?"

This I could easily answer "Columbus, Ohio. Just outside of of the Ohio State campus"

No one showed any reaction to my statement and just processed the information, Toshiro though was quick to speak again "You didn't answer my earlier question, How do you know my name?" he said calmly but I could tell by his staring at me, he very interested in my answer.

I sighed having no idea how to explain with sounding crazy or angering them but when I came up with no way to do so I answered honestly "First off I know this is going to sound crazy but listen until the end, in this world, you all are fictional characters in an anime and manga, that's how I know you, _ALL_ of you, I don't know how you ended up here but this isn't your world of that I'm positive, so I'd like to ask you all why you're here or how you got here?"

As expected everyone looked at me as if I was crazy, faces full of doubt.

"Impossible" all eyes went from me to Toshiro then back to me as I replied "I'm not lying do you want me to prove it to you?"

Toshiro narrowed his eyes at me as walked past him up to my room grabbing my laptop and a DVD off my shelve then headed back downstairs.

The room went quiet as I reentered and slapped a DVD on the coffee table in the room they them leaned in to look, eyes widening as they recognized who was on the cover.

Ichigo was on the cover, it was one of my bleach movies and it seemed appropriate to use this as proof but I had brought my laptop just in case they needed more evidence.

No one seemed to question me anymore though, even Toshiro who had been the most questioning of them seemed to have accepted my explanation with the DVD that was on the table before him.

The room was silent for a moment before Ichigo spoke up

"Is that me?"

"Yes.

"You're the main character of the series along with Rukia."

Everyone was quiet again with my last statement, not what I was expecting especially from those who I thought would protest for they themselves not being the main character. I guess they were still processing reality as it slowly sunk in.

I spoke up though shortly, the silence becoming uncomfortable.

"Do you remember how you got here?"

There were a few murmured no's and the shaking of heads before I asked another question.

"Well do you all remember what you were doing before got here?"

This elicited a response from everyone, Renji spoke up first

"I was delivering papers for Captain"

"I was forced into playing with the lieutenant.. unfortunately." Ikkaku grunted

"I was adding beauty to the barracks" Yumichika said with a flip of his hair

"I was drinking with Shuuhei and Izuru!" Rangiku said almost a little too happily

"I was looking for Matsumoto" Toshiro strained to say calmly as his temple throbbed and he sent a glare a Rangiku

"We were out on patrol" Rukia answered for herself and Ichigo

"And none of you have any idea how you ended up in my yard?"

Another unanimous shaking of heads.

I sighed into my hands.

_Well now what Am I supposed to do?_

I looked at everyone and then at the clock on the wall next to me

It said 2:52 A.M.

I turned back to the group before me. This was reality. I had characters from Bleach sitting in my living room and closing my eyes wasn't going to make them disappear.

I coughed to get everyone's attention on me then said "I know you all are confused and trying to think of how this happened and how to get back but it's late, and I don't think that thinking right now will do us much good so... you all are welcome to stay the night, and I'll help you all in the morning when we have all gotten some rest."

The group reluctantly nodded, still wanting to get to the bottom of why they were here but agreeing with me knowing they needed rest.

"Okay, someone can sleep on the couch down here, there is also a couch and bed in the basement, and the girls-" I was cut off mid sentence as I felt myself being suffocated in a hug.

"Awwww... thank you!ummmm... I can't believe it! We never even asked you your name!" Rangiku squealed as I wiggled my way out of her death grip, she still managing to keep me in her arms.

"It's Ella. Ella Taylor. And no need to thank me..." My voice got close to a whisper as I finished, I wasn't used to people thanking me, or hugging me either.

"Awwww... You're so cute Ella-chan!" Rangiku squealed again as she tightened her grip on me only to be smacked by Toshiro giving me my chance to escape.

"Stop suffocating her!" he yelled then turned to me"Thank you and sorry about her"he glared at Rangiku.

"No problem" I said not really sure what to say, and with that I showed them to where they could sleep, me being the last to crawl into bed.

As I drifted to sleep I couldn't even imagine what lay in store the next day.


	3. Chapter 3: What should I do?

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any of it's characters

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**Chapter 3 : What should I do?**

I slowly blinked my eyes open the next morning, only to find that what had happened last night was real. I sat up in bed being careful not to wake the sleeping form of Rukia beside me. Then slithered out of bed. It was easy to do since Rukia had slept near the wall and my "bed" was really only a queen sized mattress on the floor, I had gotten rid of the frame and headboard since they had made noise and were rusty.

I stepped out of bed and over a sleeping Rangiku(who me and Rukia had insisted sleep on my pink shag rug, both of us not wanting to be crushed in our sleep) making my way to the door.

Then being as stealthy as I could I closed the door behind me as I left my room only to jump when I heard a voice behind me.

"Good morning" I spun around to face Toshiro staring at me, I couldn't read his expression but at least he didn't look angry(from what I could see).

"G-Good morning. What are you doing up so early?" I managed to stammer, only then realizing how stupid my question had been when I eyed the clock.

It said 11:57A.M.

It was almost noon, by no means early but he still answered me "I like the peace and quiet of the early morning, especially since Matsumoto is always asleep until afternoon"

I stared back at him feeling even stupider as I heard him respond. I had forgotten Toshiro had always liked peace and quiet, with him being around so many rowdy characters in bleach.

"Oh... so do I, I mean I like being in a group but quiet moments are the best to help unwind" I said as as I walked past him to the stairs.

I didn't hear him respond this time just slowly turn and follow me down the stairs. After making my way to the living room I spotted Renji on the couch and Ichigo in the oversized chair, both asleep and with stupid looks on their faces. After walking down a few steps to the basement I found Ikkaku and Yumichika Asleep as well, though Yumichika had somehow made himself look dignified even in his sleep while Ikkaku had a frustrated look on his face.

I walked back up the basement stairs to find Toshiro waiting for me at the top, he hadn't followed me downstairs but wasn't going to leave me alone anytime soon it seemed. I stared at Toshiro who stared back at me as I took a seat in the kitchen.

"So, what should we do now, wait for them to wake up? Or do you want me to make breakfast for ourselves first, though technically it would be considered lunch at this hour."

Toshiro stared back at me, taking in my words and just as he was about to answer me I heard his stomach growl.

I started to stifle a laugh as Toshiro just stood their not wanting to say a word, If I hadn't known better I could have sworn there was a faint blush on his cheeks.

"Breakfast it is then" I said with a growing smile on my face. Getting up to make breakfast Toshiro just lingered behind me not really knowing what to do or say until I took him by the shoulders and directed him to one of the chairs in the kitchen. He seemed surprised that I had done this but made little effort to protest as I silenced him "Just sit here while I make breakfast"

I then grabbed what I needed from the pantry and started to make breakfast for us, _all_ of us it seemed as my cooking breakfast had started to wake everyone in the house.

Renji and Ichigo were the first to step into the kitchen followed by two very sleep Rukia and Rangiku.

"What's going on in here?" Rukia said through a yawn, as Rangiku passed her going to the kitchen table, plopping herself in one of the chairs and falling asleep on the table.

"Making breakfast, You like pancakes?"

Her eyes seemed to light up, as Renji and Toshiro gave me and her looks of confusion.

"Pancakes? What's a pancake?"Renji asked completely dumbfounded.

"What? You don't known what a pancake is? How stupid can you be?" Ichigo retorted with a smirk on his face

"Can it Strawberry!"

Ichigo's smirk turned into a scowl "Who are you calling a Strawberry?! Pineapple!"

This sent both of the boys into a fit of insults until the were promptly smacked upside the head. By Rukia.

"Quiet you two, sit down, shut up, and eat your breakfast!" Rukia nearly screamed, leaving the two boys to grudgingly obey.

The arguing had gotten Ikkaku and Yumichika up as they had emerged from the basement, and now everyone was in the kitchen.

Thankfully, everyone ate their breakfast relatively quiet, the only conversation being as to what pancakes were.

When everyone had finished breakfast and I had placed all the dishes in the dishwasher, we made our makeshift circle gathering in the living room as we did the previous night.

No one seemed to want to speak first but I finally got up the courage to talk "S-So we know from last night that none of you remember how you got here, and that you weren't together when you got here" Ichigo made a move to try and comment on my last statement but Rukia quickly silenced him with an elbow jab to the gut letting me continue "So do any of you you have any ideas as to why you could have been sent here or by who?"

This time Rukia let Ichigo answer "Urahara. I bet he's the one behind this, another one of tests gone wrong" he ended with a deep scowl.

"Don't forget Captain Kurotsuchi" Renji said, as we all had shivers running down our spins at the thought.

"O-Okay we have some valid ideas as to who, Umm... Rukia I was wondering have you been able to make contact with Seireitei at all since you got here?" I said trying to change the topic.

She seemed surprised that I had asked her but answered nonetheless "N-No all I've been getting is static, It's like something is blocking the signal"

I sighed and spoke again " It's probably because your in a different dimension, If you didn't hear me last night, this isn't the world of the living your used to, here all of you are _**supposed **_to be fictional, I have no idea what to do about this" I mumbled the last part but I'm pretty sure they still heard me.

The room dived into uncomfortable silence again before I broke it, finally coming up with something "If you want to you can stay here until we figure out how to get you home, I live by myself so it shouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately that's about all I can propose right now, and suggest that you try and fix your soul pager so you can contact Seireitei and find a way back"

Everyone stared at me there expressions showing frustration towards their lack of control of the situation, and some also laced with small gratitude. Rukia spoke first

"Thank you, We'll try not to cause trouble for you" Toshiro nodding his head at her statement while he kept his eyes on me.

"What do we do now? I ain't just gonna sit around while you try and fix the signal" Ikkaku interjected for the first time, he turned to Renji "Up for a fight?"

I paled at the thought of any of them fighting anywhere near here and shouted "NO FIGHTING! If you people try and fight anywhere near here you'll bring down the entire neighborhood!"

Ikkaku was about to shout right back at me before Toshiro stopped him "She's right, even if it is not ours we are in the world of the living and will not cause destruction to it."

Ikkaku looked angry but backed down receding into the couch in frustration.

I breathed a sigh of relief then turned to my thoughts.

I had seven bleach characters that were going to stay in my house, for who knows how long, _what was I going to do with them? _I looked at them as they were in conversation as to how to try and fix the signal to Seireitei, they were pretty much coming up with next to nothing.

I stared at them before finally saying something "If you want I could take your soul pager to a friend of mine, he works at an electronics store near here and might be able to help."

Everyone looked at me skeptically but nodded knowing that they really didn't have many options at the moment and mine sound the most likely to work.

"Alright, if you want we can go now, the store's open and he should be there, it's just a short walk from here" I got up as they nodded at me.

I made my way for the front door as they followed behind me. I stopped though as I placed my handle on the door nob and looked at the group behind me.

They were all wearing the standard shinigami shihakusho, each sporting a few personal flairs as well and Toshiro wearing his captain's haori. If I could see them that probably meant anyone could and having them walking around like that would scream attention to us. None of us would want that... so I turned to face them and with another sigh(I'd been sighing a lot today)spoke to them

"Let's get you changed first before we go out, I don't want to get mobbed by people thinking your cosplaying"

They gave me confused looks but I just pushed them up the stairs, this was going to take a while...


	4. Chapter 4: Trip to the Electronics

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of it's characters

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**Chapter 4 : Trip to the Electronics**

I walked alongside Toshiro as we made our way through the back roads to the electronics shop. Renji, Ichigo and Rukia were behind us talking and arguing about who knows what. Behind them were Ikkaku, Yumichika and Rangiku who was whining to Ikkaku and Yumichika about being ignored again.

I had finally gotten everyone changed and out of the house in only a hour, it would have been shorter but some had protested about the clothes I had given them and it had taken some persuading to finally get them to change.

I glanced at Toshiro who was walking silently next to me, trying to ignore the arguing going on behind us. He was wearing a loose green t-shirt with an even larger black jacket, the denim shorts I had given him looked more like pants on him and overall everything was a few sises too big. I couldn't find anything smaller though, both my dad and my little brother were huge guys, my little brother hadn't been as small as Toshiro in years so I just looked for the smallest sizes.

Everyone else fit their clothes relatively well though. Renji, Ikkaku, Ichigo and Yumichika had fit into either may dad or brother's clothes all choosing baggy t-shirts and Ichigo and Yumichika wearing jackets as well. They would have looked perfectly normal if not for their hairstyles, but not much could be done about that.

Even Rukia and Rangiku had fit into their clothes, Rangiku fitting into my mom's and Rukia into some of my old ones. Rangiku hadn't been happy that the clothes as they weren't as trendy as she would have liked, she sported a low cut purple top that had ties on either side of her sleeves, she had also taken one of my short denim skirts in favor of any of the bottoms my mom had though, overall she looked good even with her complaints she pulled it off nicely.

Rukia on the other hand looked very childish, having borrowed some of my old elementary school clothes. She had on a long sleeved blue top that was a size too big for her and jeans that were baggy on her, dragging lightly on the pavement. The only thing that made her look older was the black scarf she had around her neck, making her look a little sophisticated .

My gaze left the people behind me and I caught Toshiro's eye as I turned to look ahead of me. He had caught me glancing at them, but let it go and looked ahead of himself again.

I decided to break the silence though and asked

"So Toshiro, do you know much about America? I know you all lived in Japan, but is there anything you know about American culture?"

Toshiro steamed silently as he seemed angered but responded calmly.

"No" he gritted through his teeth "And since you obviously know who we are that's Captain Hitsugaya to you"

I looked at him in surprise. I had forgotten how much he hated being called by his first name, so he wasn't going to like what I had to say.

"I know your not going to like this but in America people call each other by their first names, and no other honorifics either the only people who get called by their last names are teachers and sometimes in business situations but not among friends, coworkers or acquaintances."

He looked at me dumfounded but quickly noticing he was doing so looked away from me.

"Is that so?"

I nodded and decided that it might be good to tell everyone before we met other people. So I turned around completely, getting everyone's attention at my action.

"Most of you probably don't know but in America people call each other by their first name without honorifics so while in a public setting you are going to have to call each other by your first names, no matter how uncomfortable that may be."

Most of them looked uncomfortable the minute those words left my mouth, Ichigo didn't care though he had always done that regardless of the situation.

Before I could hear any protests, I whipped back around and averted my eyes to the sidewalk in front of me.

Not only was it going to be a pain hide who they really were I was going to have to teach them them the typical American lifestyle... this was going to be a lot tougher than I thought...

* * *

The walk their wasn't that long, but it felt like forever with the bleach crew with me. I wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out, they were so embarrassing! Once we had gotten in the vicinity of the shopping it seemed like someone asked me a question every five seconds, all of them very stupid to me, but with most of them being ignorant of the world of the living to begin with, them had an even larger curiosity of American culture.

Luckily I was able to get to the shop fairly quickly, opting to ignore most of their questions.

I stood in front of the store, with large green and blue letters that said "GADGETS MADE EASY" plastered above it. I hadn't actually been in the store in a while, I only ever came when my laptop broke down or my friends dragged me here.

I grabbed the door handle and slow opening the door peeked my head inside. The shop was empty except for a boy behind the counter fiddling with some sort of computer chip.

A smile formed as I saw him and opened the door completely.

"Hi Teddy! Been a while hasn't it? Whatcha ya workin on?"

The boy behind the counter seem startled by my sudden appearance dan nearly dropped what he was working on, only looking up at me once he was sure he hadn't broken anything.

"Ella? What are you doing here? You never come here...oh wait don't tell me you overheated your laptop watching too much anime again?"

I blushed and then got angry at him for embarrassing me, knowing that the bleach crew behind me had heard him. I could hear snickers coming from some of them.

"NO! I have another reason for coming here!" I walked up to the counter and practically slammed the soul pager down on the counter "The signal on this is broken, all there is is static, can you fix it?"

Teddy then picked up the pager and started to examine it, looking thoroughly puzzled before speaking,

"What is this, I can tell it's a pager but I've never seen this make and model, not even on the foreign market, where did you get it?"

I gulped, trying to think of a way to explain, this wasn't going to be easy. So I decided to just point at the bleach crew that had followed me into the store.

Then for the first time Teddy noticed my guests and was startled by their appearances, curiosity seemed to get the best of him though and he questioned again.

"Who's is this?"

"Mine" Rukia answered stepping closer to the counter.

"Do you know the model? Where you got it from?"

"It is a soul pager I received from my captain" Rukia answered in a heartbeat leaving Teddy even more confused than when he'd asked me.

He looked at me for for an explanation "Who are these people?"

I sighed and buried my face in my hands but told him anyway.

"I know this is going to sound completely insane but hear me out. These people aren't from this world they come from an anime, and were somehow dragged into this world, we don't know why or how but if we can fix her soul pager we might be able to get them home" I finished hoping he wouldn't think I was crazy.

He just stared at me... like I was crazy, but then looked over the pager again before finally saying something.

"I can try and fix it, it might just be on the wrong frequency that your looking for or a piece is loose."

I smiled as well as Rukia before I soon regretted it.

"I'm not saying I believe your story, it is coming from you after all and I still haven't forgotten how you succeeded in convincing last years freshman into believing the rumors that there is a pool on the school roof to be true." He ended with a smirk directed at me.

I nearly exploded.

"Hey! I wasn't the only one doing the convincing! And I didn't do as nearly as bad as last years seniors they actually got them into swimwear and said there was a party!"

I glared him down and he just laughed at me, the bleach crew just looking at us, not sure what to say.

"Anyway if I'm able to fix it I'll call you right away"he said through giggles

I just huffed any turned toward the bleach crew behind me.

"Okay now that that's done I say we go"

Toshiro and Rukia looked like they wanted to question Teddy but I abruptly grabbed their wrists and dragged them out of the store. Not waiting for the rest to catch up I angrily stomped off not caring where I was going, just wanting to get away so I could punch something... then calm down.


	5. Chapter 5: Missing shoppers

Finally chapter 5 is here! I've been so busy with the new school year I haven't had any time to write, it sucks. Hope this longer chapter makes up for it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of it's characters

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**Chapter 5: Missing shoppers**

"...la...lla...ELLA!" I snapped out of my fury as I spun around to see who had screamed my name, only to notice that I was still dragging Toshiro and Rukia by their wrists. I immediately let go

"S-Sorry! I was angry and didn't know what I was doing!"

Toshiro grunted an "Just don't do it again" and Rukia silently nodded agreeing with him.

I was still embarrassed that I had literally dragged them out of the store, but I was finally noticing my surrounding. I had dragged us almost all the way to the other end of the shopping plaza in the opposite direction of home, also noticing that we had lost everyone else.

I panicked when I noticed they were gone.

"Where did everyone go?! We have to find them!" I said as I made a motion to grab their wrists again, they both escaped though but decided to follow me. They knew as much as I did that leaving _that_ crowd unattended wouldn't end well.

"What stores do you think they would shop at?" I asked turning back to Toshiro and Rukia as we walked to the center of the plaza.

" Matsumoto always seems to come back with a new wardrobe every time she escapes to the world of the living" Toshiro said calmly but I could see the annoyance written all over his face.

I really sympathized with him, Rangiku could easily drive anyone crazy, but Toshiro had to deal with her on a daily basis.

"Ichigo and Renji probably walked into any store they could find something to spar with" Rukia finished with a sigh.

That was a problem.

"Any ideas on Ikkaku and Yumichika?"

Two silent shaken heads were my answer.

I sighed and rubbed my temples. Unfortunately, they probably weren't together and had gone anywhere that had caught their eyes, but to go after first? Rangiku might end up with a mountain of clothes but she couldn't get into any major trouble for that, and I didn't know where to start with Ikkaku and Yumichika so that left Renji and Ichigo.

Those two could no doubt cause some damage and in no time flat.

"I say we look for Renji and Ichigo first, I've got a good Idea where they might be.."

Just as I finished talking I heard loud arguing, and I mean **LOUD**!

Looks like I didn't need to look for them anymore.

* * *

As I walked into the sporting goods store I could see a blob of red and orange poking over aisles, but that isn't what made me spot them, the noise they were making was enough to make anyone easily go deaf.

I made my way through the aisles with new found rage building inside me as well as Toshiro and Rukia behind me.

Then I spotted them.

Ichigo and Renji were yelling their heads off at each other, and pointing at something on the floor. I looked down and found an broken mug with some type of logo on it, though it was too smashed to tell which logo.

Their screaming was giving me a headache.

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" I screamed, finally getting the boys attention.

They looked at me in shock, but I didn't care what they thought at the moment, they had made a huge scene and I wanted to get out of the store as fast as possible. I looked around me and saw a saleslady watching us in fear behind the end of the aisle.

"I'm so sorry about my friends, they forget where they are at times. I'll pay for the broken mug so can you show me to the register?" I asked her as politely as I could.

I didn't have to ask the boys what had happened, they had obviously broken the glass and were arguing over who exactly had broken it.

The saleslady relaxed slightly and said she'd show me to the register. I began to follow her but just as I rounded the aisle I commanded "Wait for me outside". My glare was enough for them to listen to me. I didn't get angry often and I had been told I'm pretty scary when I do.

After paying for the broken mug I left the store finding Renji, Ichigo, Rukia and Toshiro waiting for on one of the many benches littering the walkway.

I walked up to them glaring down Renji and Ichigo, who though wouldn't admit it, looked slightly intimidated by me.

"What were you thinking?!"

"It wasn't my fault that the strawberry had to go and break a mug" Renji scoffed

"What was that Pineapple?! You were the one who broken it!" Ichigo retorted

"I don't care who broke it! Think about the time and place you idiots! You can't just go screaming at each other in public!" Ichigo's home was in the world of the living, didn't he at least understand this?

"Do you two understand?!" they nodded, and I could hear them mumbling but it was too soft to make out.

"Anyway, now that we found you two, I'm almost positive I know the store Rangiku would be in, then we can look for Ikkaku and Yumichika, is that okay with everyone?"

A chorus of nodded heads.

"Good" I smiled and spun on my heals, making my way to our next store

* * *

There was only one woman's clothing store in the shopping plaza and though there were other cute shops, I knew Rangiku would find the clothes first, and I was right, I walked in with the bleach crew behind me to spot Rangiku admiring her new outfit in one of the store's mirrors.

What I was surprised to find though was that Yumichika and Ikkaku were with her. Yumichika was apparently critiquing Rangiku's outfit, positively too and it did look good on her. Her new aquamarine top was sleeveless, a metal ring right above her chest and at the top of the shirt, connected the string that wrapped around her neck to the shirt. She also sported some of the tightest looked navy jeans I'd ever seen and at least a dozen silver bangles on her wrist. She almost made me jealous, almost.

Ikkaku wasn't looking quite as good though, in fact I couldn't see his face at all behind the mountain of clothes he was holding, obviously all Rangiku's.

That was when Rangiku spotted us.

"Oh! Captain, Ella-Chan! I was wondering where you two had gone!" She said as she tried to suffocate me in one of her bear hugs again.

"Rangiku I told you about what we had to call each other in public, so that's Toshiro and Ella" It still might have attracted attention though since they didn't look Japanese but their names were obviously so.

"What do you think of this outfit" she said twirling around, ignoring what I was saying to her.

"It looks nice" It really did and she smiled at me "But how are you going to pay for it? Do you have money from the world of the living?" I knew she went on shopping sprees here in the living world but this world of the living was different from hers and I wondered if it was the same money.

It ended up being the same though as we shortly after that walked outside the store, Ikkaku carrying all the bags that contained all the clothes he was holding earlier. I don't know how she had gotten him to do that and something told me I didn't want to know either.

As we left the store I decided to address everyone now that we were all together again

"I think we should go back to my house and decide what we should do from their, Teddy said he'd call if anything happened with Rukia's soul pager so we're going to have to find out what to do while we wait." I turned to Toshiro "Is that alright?" I felt I should ask him since he technically was the highest ranked officer here.

"Yes" was his simple reply, as he looked me straight in the eyes. I was surprised he had done that. Not saying yes but looking in me in the eyes when he replied, he looked so aggravated yet his eyes seemed to soften when he replied.

"Uh.. Great," I said showing them the way to the exit of the plaza where we had entered.

It was still only early afternoon and I already felt dead as we started the trek home, I only hoped to climb into bed the second I got home, but first we'd have to talk about what to do while the phone was being fixed, I just hoped that I could handle them until then


	6. Chapter 6: So what do we do now?

Sorry, this chapter's a little short, I promise though the next one is going to be longer!

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any of it's characters

* * *

**Chapter 6 : So what do we do now?**

It didn't take long for us to walk home, especially since it was actually quiet most of the way home. Renji and Ichigo wouldn't look at each other as Rukia walked happily in between them, Rangiku was admiring her new outfit(she had decided to wear it home), Yumichika was lightly teasing Ikkaku at how ridiculous he looked carrying Rangiku's bags and Toshiro like me was enjoying the relative peace and quiet. It didn't last long though once we had gotten back to my house.

After we had for the third time today situated ourselves in my living room, Ichigo immediately spoke up.

"So now what should we do?" he asked no one in particular

"You heard Ella, her friend will call us if he fixes my soul pager" Rukia said

"Yeah, but we don't know how long that might take, and unlike you people I have to prepare for college entrance exams" Ichigo said, his scowl deepening

"Well you could always go to school here, I mean we were able to get into your school with no problem, how much harder can it be here?" Toshiro stated only to try to keep Ichigo calm

This suggestion though made me shiver, having any of them at my school slightly scared me since they were by no means normal and it would get even harder to keep the secret as to where they where they came from.

"Oh! That sounds fun Captain!" Rangiku squealed and looked like she was going to jump out of her seat.

"Uhhhh... fine" Ichigo scoffed, knowing that trying to retort would get him absolutely no where. "Do you know where the nearest high school is?" He said turning to me.

"Ummm..." I really didn't know what to say but I didn't get in a word in before...

SMACK!

Ichigo's face nearly hit the floor as Rukia slapped him upside the head

"You idiot! She never even said we could stay here while we wait and you're already treating her home like it's yours!"Rukia glared at him, as he returned the glare getting up off the floor

I stepped in before they could start fighting "It's alright if you stay here you know, I don't mind and I definitely have the space." I really didn't mind, they may have been violent but they were characters from one of my all time favorite animes, and who wouldn't want to spend time with their favorite characters?

Ichigo smirked at Rukia then turned to me again "Thanks, so do you know where the nearest high school is?"

I was taken aback that Ichigo had actually thanked me, but quickly recovered.

"The nearest high school would be mine, Aurora High, It's about a block from here in the opposite direction of the shopping plaza"

"You're in high school?" Renji asked honestly surprised

"Yes! How old did you think I was?!" I knew that I looked older than I actually was, my glasses and bright blonde highlights on naturally Auburn hair had made me look a lot older since I had gotten them last year. I also tended to act older than I was, that probably being the only reason I was still in the U.S. At the moment.

"It's just, well since you had this big house to yourself and you really do look old enough to be out of college sort of" Ichigo answered for Renji but quickly regretted it when he saw me trying to calm myself down.

"I'm a senior all right?" I gritted through my teeth.

"Then you will help us get into the school?" Rukia genuinely asked

Her sincerity was sort of creepy for her but instantly calmed me down.

"Fine, I'll get you into school on Monday, but how are you even going to be able to enter, I'm pretty sure you don't have any transcripts with you."

"I thought you said you knew us" Renji smirked, and I felt like an idiot, they had gotten into school before, and they were probably right that they could get into my school with little to no trouble at all.

"Now that that's settled anything else you need to ask or talk about?" I addressed this to everyone.

"Not at the moment but The moment your friend receives any new on Kuchiki's soul pager you are to inform us immediately" Toshiro commanded.

I nodded and then the room dropped into uncomfortable silence.

Fortunately the rest of the day went well, as well as Sunday. For the remainder of the weekend I had decided with the help of the bleach crew to "redecorate" the house, since there were now eight people living here and I didn't know how long they'd be staying, I wanted to designate bedrooms.

We decided to turn the basement into the girls room for Rukia and Rangiku, since it already had a couch and a bed for them to sleep on.

Then I decided to give Renji, Ichigo, Ikkaku and Yumichika my parents room since it was even larger than my huge basement. The only thing I had to do was bring up the extra twin bed in our storage room, leaving them with two beds, a couch and an huge chair big enough to almost lie down in.

Lastly I gave Toshiro my little brothers room. It was incredibly small in that it only really fit a twin bed and desk, leaving almost no room to put anything else in but he got it to himself and I think he was thankful for that alone.

After deciding who would room where the girls had decided to personalize their room after asking for my permission, which I gladly gave them and the boys decide to watch TV, except for Toshiro who had been eying my many bookshelves in my room and then went to read in his room. Toshiro asking to borrow some of my books had shocked me but gave him permission anyway.

Any of them asking anything of me had creeped me out at first but I was getting better at responding more quickly.

The rest of the Weekend went on like this and there no major fights(though there was still a lot of arguing)

Then it was Monday morning.

I had set my alarm for six so that I made sure we got breakfast and would still get there early. Everyone including me had trouble waking up, I was not a morning person and the others just weren't used to getting up early. Except for Toshiro, I had no idea how he could be so alert this early in the morning.

I was eventually able to get everyone out the door whether they were awake or not, and as I locked the door behind me I felt the chill of the morning and mentally braced myself for the day that was to come.


	7. Chapter 7: Deciding classes

I promised a long chapter and have thus delivered,

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any of it's characters

* * *

**Chapter 7: Deciding classes**

Luckily I was able to get all of us to the school just as the teachers were opening the doors to let the students inside, which meant that there were very little students who noticed my guests with me that morning.

I made a beeline for the office, only glancing over my shoulder to make sure the bleach crew was still following me.

Mrs. Holcomb, the attendance officer paid us no mind as I opened the door to the school's office and gestured the bleach crew inside.

I told them to sit in the chairs farther in the office while I talked to office sectary, Mrs. Moore

Thankfully for me Mrs. Moore was already here and working at her desk, which was covered in papers and I could see notes stuck to her computer on everywhere but the screen, but was thoroughly engrossed in her work on the computer. She didn't even notice I was there until I was right behind her.

"Ummm... Mrs. Moore?" I asked trying to get her attention, and after a few more seconds of tying she spun around to face me, smiling when she saw me.

"Hi sweetheart! Do you need something?"

Even though she knew my name she almost always called me sweetheart, I really didn't mind though since I I could tell she truly liked me and wasn't just being fake nice.

"Morning Mrs. Moore, and actually yeah I do need something" I couldn't look her in the eye, I was too afraid of how she'd react to me bringing her seven new students "I have some friends who just moved into the neighborhood and need to register for school" I glanced over at the bleach crew who was staring at me from their waiting are.

Mrs. Moore followed my eyes and glanced over at them. She seemed surprised but was able to question be nonetheless.

"You said they all just moved into the neighborhood?"

"Yeah, they're ummmm... living with me..." I was embarrassed to say it, having that many "teenagers" in one house would sound crazy to any normal person.

Mrs. Moore's eyes widened even more if possible but then returned to normal as she sighed. Rummaging through her desk she pulled out multiple different forums and handed them to me.

"They'll have to fill all of these out. An you help them with that? If you're not finished by the beginning of first period I'll write you a note." she handed me the papers and returned to her typing.

I gratefully took the forums and made my my way to the bleach crew who were looked increasingly impatient.

"So how did it go" Ichigo asked

"Alright, we just have to fill out all these forums and your good to go"I began looking through the forums. There were a medical cards, folders with the word "TRANSCRIPT" written in bright red at the top, and schedule forums.

"I don't think you can fill out the medical cards or provide transcripts, what do you want to do" I asked Toshiro. Who grabbed the transcript folders and medicals cards from me.

"I'll take care of these" he said and then walked over to Mrs. Moore. I couldn't hear what he said but he pulled out some device and waved it over the documents, and then handed them to her. She scanned them and then put them on her desk returning to her work.

"What did you do Toshiro?" I asked dumfounded, they had never showed in the anime how they'd registered themselves in Ichigo's school and now I was curious as hell.

"I just made the papers appear how she wanted them to" it both did and didn't answer my question but I didn't have a chance to ask again.

"She said ask you about filling out the those forums" He said pointing to the schedule forums in my hands"

I passed out a forum to everyone and began to said what they were for "These are schedule forums, where you decide what classes you want to take, as you are all going to be enrolled as seniors the only mandatory classes are English and Government, you can choose the rest."

They all just stared at me until Ichigo broke the growing silence

"We choose our classes?"

"Yeah, do they not have that in Japan?" I wasn't very knowledgeable on Japanese education, but I thought they could at least choose some classes.

"We really only can choose the one extra arts class but that's it" Ichigo stated

"Well, here, there are eight periods, including lunch, which means you'll have to choose five other classes, and also just to let you know, most seniors still take a math and science even though they aren't required to, so keep that in mind" I wanted them to know that just in case they decided not to take them.

"So what classes do you take?" Rangiku asked me looking down at the forum in her hands like it was from outer space

"Well, in the morning I've got English first, advanced Spanish second, advanced choir third and I work as an assistant here in the office fourth. Lunch is fifth period and then I've got art sixth, government seventh and yearbook eighth." I finished saying almost all in one breath,

"That's a lot of classes" Rukia commented.

"I know" sometimes I wondered why I had decided to take the classes I was during my senior year but I probably would have regretted no doing so "Now we need to decide your classes, so let me tell you a little about your choices"

After some long explanations on the multiple classes available everyone was scribbling away on papers, writing down their choices.

The bell rang just as just the bleach crew was handing in they're papers to me so I could give them to Mrs. Moore. I mentally cursed knowing I'd be late to class. Forgetting about something else.

At the sound of the bell the I could see the students in the cafeteria start to disperse and make their way to their classes. Then I saw the first period officers come in as I handed Mrs. Moore the schedule forums.

"Ella? What are you doing here?"

I had forgotten in all the chaos of the weekend that one of my best friends, Bree, was an office assistant first period.

I handed the forums to Mrs. Moore who told me to wait while she made the schedules, I whispered something to her before I turned to Bree and she nodded her head after I had finished.

"Morning Bree, what's up" I waved at her awkwardly

"What's up with _you_? What are you doing in the office?" she had picked up on how nervous I was, I could just tell.

I sighed, I couldn't lie to her "I'm here to enroll my friends in school here" I said, motioning to the bleach crew behind me.

"Wow that's a lot of people, did they just move into the neighborhood?" she asked me looking at them as if she was examining them.

"If I tell you, you can't tell this to anyone else."

This caught her attention "What is it, I promise I won't tell" she was close to drooling wanting to know more about them.

"They're all staying at my house"

"NO WAY!" she screamed making everyone in the office look at her.

I clamped my hand over her mouth "But you can't tell anybody, got it?" she nodded and I released my hand from her mouth

"You have to tell Ana and Sofia though" those were my other two best friends

"I will at lunch I got to go" I noticed Mrs. Brown waving me over.

I walked up to her and she handed me seven schedules and a note

"Once they've looked over their classes all of you go to class, and show them the way to theirs, use the note for being tardy, and If your teacher has any questions tell her she can ask me anything."

I thanked her and took the schedules, returning to the group.

I placed all the schedules on the table in the office we had used to write on and we all glanced at the schedules

**Ichigo Kurosaki****  
**

**Period 1: English  
**

**Period 2: Advanced Spanish  
**

**Period 3: Calculus **

**Period 4:Advanced Gym  
**

**Period 5:Lunch  
**

**Period 6: Advanced Biology  
**

**Period 7: Government  
**

**Period 8:American History  
**

**Rukia Kuchiki  
**

**Period 1: English  
**

**Period 2:Acting  
**

**Period 3:Theater Survey  
**

**Period 4:Advanced Gym  
**

**Period 5:Lunch  
**

**Period 6:Advanced Art  
**

**Period 7: Government  
**

******Period 8:American History **  


**Rangiku Matsumoto ****  
**

**Period 1:English  
**

**Period 2:Acting  
**

**Period 3: Advanced Choir  
**

**Period 4:Advanced Gym  
**

**Period 5:Lunch  
**

**Period 6:Advanced Art  
**

**Period 7: Government  
**

**Period 8:American History  
**

**Toshiro Hitsugaya  
**

**Period 1:English  
**

**Period 2:Psychology  
**

**Period 3:Beginning Computers  
**

**Period 4:Advanced Gym**

**Period 5:Lunch**

**Period 6:Health**

**Period 7: Government**

**Period 8:American History**

**Ikkaku Madarame****  
**

**Period 1:English  
**

**Period 2: Gym  
**

**Period 3:Theater Survey  
**

**Period 4:Advanced Gym  
**

**Period 5:Lunch  
**

**Period 6:Health  
**

**Period 7: Government  
**

**Period 8:American History**

**Yumichika Ayasegawa  
**

**Period 1:English  
**

**Period 2:Acting  
**

**Period 3: Advanced Choir  
**

**Period 4:Advanced Gym  
**

**Period 5:Lunch  
**

**Period 6:Advanced Art  
**

**Period 7: Government  
**

******Period 8:American History **  


**Renji Abarai**

**Period 1:English**

**Period 2: Gym**

**Period 3:Psychology**

**Period 4:Advanced Gym**

**Period 5:Lunch**

**Period 6:Health**

**Period 7: Government**

**Period 8:American History**

I looked over the schedules and saw that Mrs. Moore had listened to my request and put them all in my English and Government classes, I couldn't watch over them all day but two classes was better than none. Beside the classes were also the room numbers and teacher's names but I wasn't paying attention to those, since I pretty much knew every class and it's teacher in this school.

I looked at the classes then looked at the clock on the wall.

We were ten minutes late to first period.

Discussion about the schedules could wait, I scoped them up and turned to the bleach crew

"Ready for your first class?"


	8. Chapter 8: First day of school Part 1

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any of it's characters

* * *

**Chapter 8 : First day of school (Part 1)**

I stood outside the door,the number 208 above it, everyone waiting behind me for me to open it. I knocked lightly on the door and heard the shuffling of a chair followed by footsteps.

The door swung open to reveal a woman in her late thirties with shoulder length blonde hair, huge round glasses, and clothes that made her look like one of her students. Her face brightened when she saw me but lessened when she glanced over my shoulder.

She turned to the rest of the class "Continue writing" with that she stepped out into the hallway and closed the door behind her.

"Ella who are these people?" She glanced at the bleach crew behind me.

"Your new students Jill" I gave her the schedules Mrs. Moore had given me and she started looking over them.

As she looked over them I felt someone lean in closer to me, too close for me and ask "I thought you said people call teachers by their last names?"

I could feel red tint my cheeks, I wasn't used to close contact but recovered quickly "Students normally do Toshiro, but Jill said it was okay to call her that, she even prefers it actually" I said, then giving myself some personal space just in time for Jill to look up from the schedules.

"Well, it's nice to meet you all" it sounded forced but I could tell Jill was trying to be nice but just wasn't comfortable for some reason.

"Welcome to Aurora High, I'm Mrs. Levine but please call me Jill" She smiled and I could see some of the tension in her shoulders released. "We should let you meet the other students" she then opened the door and ushered us inside. I took my seat towards the front of the class, as the bleach crew along with Jill stood at the front of the class.

"Class I'd like to introduce you to some new students, now why don't you introduce yourselves?"

Everyone stared at the new students, mostly Toshiro, he had the only unnatural hair color of the bunch for an American teen and also didn't even look old enough to be in high school.

Everyone introduced themselves and there was no fighting for once until Jill asked if the class had any questions for them.

"So where are you from?" a kid with green streaks in his hair asked, I think his name was Eric.

"Japan" Toshiro stated. We had talked last night about what to say if anyone had asked them about where they were from or about why they were here, and we had decided to be honest, to an extent.

"Wow, Japan! So what are you doing here?" Jill asked as she sat behind her desk, now interested in the conversation.

"Our parents are working on a project and couldn't bring us with them so we're staying with friends here." Ichigo was the one to answer.

"Where did you get your hair dyed?" a girl in the back row said as she twisted her bright blonde hair in her fingers, her eyes intent on Toshiro.

I swear I could hear the vein on Toshiro's head pop.

"My hair isn't dyed" he sounded like he was going to explode any minute.

"REALLY?!" the girl said, her eyes practically gleamed with, well I don't know what but it was hilarious. I guess Rangiku thought so to as she couldn't help bursting out in laughter.

"Quiet Matsumoto!" had Toshiro been listening to me at all? I had told him not to call her that and he does it on the first day!

Sensing the tension Jill put a stop to the questions "I think that's enough questions for today, grab a sheet of notebook paper and a pencil from my desk and take a seat where you can find one. Don't forget to return thee pencils after class"

I sighed in relief, no damage done, yet.

They took their seats, Toshiro sitting behind me and the rest scattered across the room. Before I knew it the bell to signal the end of first period had come and marked one period with no injuries to speak of, seven to go.

After pointing the group in the directions of their next classes, me and Ichigo headed off to advanced Spanish.

I was nervous about how good Ichigo's Spanish was and I was right to be when he didn't even know how to introduce himself.

"Why did you decide to take _advanced_ Spanish when you've never taken a Spanish class before?!" I whispered to him as the teacher, Señor Tanner handed out the class assignment.

"I thought I could pick it up easier if I was in the advanced class instead of a beginner's" he whispered back.

Why was I living with him again? I asked myself, no one could be this stupid. He was here now though so I decided I might as well help him, and he proved me wrong. What had taken me months to memorize he had picked up on by the end of the period. Maybe I should have taken advanced first...

My next class also went smoothly, Rangiku and Yumichika surprised me both when they easily passed the entrance test to the class. Rangiku had sounded beautiful and yet so sad and lonely as she sang, like something was missing. Yumichika had sounded confident afterword saying "sounding beautiful is just as important as looking the part" typical Yumichika. Everything was going great until fourth period rolled around.

I had entered the office and immediately been given three stacks of papers to file and label, I was used to it and didn't really mind but I doubt I'd be done by the end of the period.

I settled into "my" office and rummaged in my bag for a pencil to start working. It wasn't technically my office, it was the office assistant's office. There was one in the office every period except for lunch and it was shared by all of them.

I had sat my paperwork on my my desk and slide into my chair to start working, forgetting to close the door to my office, I wished I hadn't forgotten.

Less than five minutes later I heard a loud BANG! That made me jump. I cautiously looked out my office and found what had caused the noise.

There in the entrance to the school office stood Rukia, Ichigo and Renji, the two latter looking worse for wear.

"What in the world happened?!" Me and Mrs. Moore, who had heard the bang and also emerged from her desk, asked.

"These two" Rukia pointed her thumbs at Ichigo and Renji "started arguing and it got so bad the teacher had to forcibly separate them, then he told me to take them here"

We were both speechless, but Mrs. Moore found her words first.

"We'll have to call your parents about this" she picked up the phone on her desk "What's their numbers?"

This made me panic "Mrs Moore as you know they're living with me and their parents can' be reached, so why don't you let me handle this, I can promise you their parents will be told of this incident." I was begging her giving her my best puppy dog eyes.

She looked reluctant but agreed "Alright, since this is a first offense and I trust you Ella to have this taken care of, but if this happens again, I'll have to call their parents myself.

I felt like jumping up and down but restrained myself and softly thanked her, then glared at the two had caused the trouble.

Rukia go back to class and tell the teacher that Ichigo and Renji won't be coming back to class" she nodded and dashed out the office door.

"My office. Now."

I felt like a teacher scolding grade schoolers, and I'm guessing I must have looked it too.

The two walked into my office and I took my seat at my desk, Ichigo and Renji standing in front of it. This time I had made sure to remember to close my door and started talking when I knew we'd be left alone.

"What were you two thinking? Can you two not go one day without trying to rip each others heads off?!"

Renji looked like he had something to say but I kept going.

"Even though I hate to punish people you give me no choice if that's the only way to get it through your skulls to think first before you act when in public. First your going to help me finish this paperwork, then your going to do the shopping when we get home and lastly if anything like this happens again you'll both be pulled out of advanced gym. Got it?"

The last part got the boys attention. Everyone had insisted against my judgment to take advanced gym. It was the class with the better athletes who actually wanted to take gym and weren't just taking it for school credit. At least here they could get some exercise which they weren't going to get much anywhere else.

They silently nodded and just stood there like statues.

A smile crept on my face as my mood became lighter.

"Now that that's out of the way, help me finish up this paperwork, who knows if we finish early you might catch the end of Gym class"

They pulled in chairs from the waiting area in the office to my office and we began working in silence but the silence was a welcome change.

We finished the paperwork with ten minutes left in the period and I gave them a note to go back to class (One of the few perks of being an office assistant was being able to both take people out of class and send them back) which Renji instantly snatched and made his way for the door, Ichigo close on his tail.

I continued to stare at the door to my office even after Ichigo and Renji were long gone, then stared up at the ceiling, getting lost in thought.

4 periods down.

4 more to go.


	9. Chapter 9: First day of school Part 2

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any of it's characters

* * *

**Chapter 9: First day of school (Part 2)**

I stared at the window on the gym door from my table in the cafeteria. The basketball game in gym class had run late and they were still in the gym even though lunch had already started, showed how much the advanced gym kids really loved a workout. I was so so focused on the the gym that I hadn't noticed my friends had sat down at the table and were already talking.

"So have you seen the new kids yet?" Sofia glanced at everyone, looking for any info.

"I have" Bree answered

"Really?! What are they like, I've heard about them but haven't seen them yet" Sofia was practically falling out of chair as she leaned in closer to hear. Sofia always wanted to know what was going on, and hated when she was left out but also wasn't the type to divulge secrets so I didn't nag to her about her obsessive need to know everything.

"They're seven of them. Five guys and two girls. They're from japan and don't look like typical high schoolers." she finished as she dug into her lunch.

"Wow! Are they cute?"

Sofia liked guys who were country, I don't think any of them remotely fit that profile.

"I don't think they're your type Sofia" Bree said. She had seen them. I didn't see any of them wearing ten gallon hats or riding boots in the near future.

"If you want to know more about them I'd ask Ella though" she pointed so me and heads snapped in my direction.

"Why would Ella know anything about them?" Ana had finally entered the conversation. She normally just stayed quiet when Sofia was searching for news.

"You should tell them now Ella before the waiting kills Sofia" Bree smirked. Oh was she enjoying this.

"Fine I'll talk but you can't tell anyone else what I'm about to tell you."

Ana calming responded "Sure" and shrugged her shoulders.

"I promise" Sofia said getting dead serious then her eyes gleamed with anticipation. She could not stay serious for more than a minute.

"The new kids are living at my place" I braced my ears for the reaction I knew was coming.

"WHAAATTTT?!" Sofia screamed so loudly she turned the heads of the whole cafeteria, she would have deafened me if I hadn't blocked my ears.

I stood up and spoke to our audience "Sorry everybody, she just overreacted to some bad news."

It seems like they bought it, anyone who knew Sofia knew she could overreact.

"No beating around the bush with you eh Ella? Bree was still smirking.

"Don't feel like it today, I've had a stressful morning" I plopped back down into my chair instantly being bombarded with questions.

"They're living with you?! I thought you were living alone until your parents got back? When did they start living with you? What are their names? How old are they? Do they have girlfriends?"

She sounded like a broken record, asking question after question as I continue to just listen to her. Sofia had gotten me so distracted that we both failed to notice the people approaching us.

"Who's the chatterbox" Ichigo asked tilting his head at Sofia who sat upright in her seat and went timid all of a sudden.

"I'm Sofia, a friend Ella's" she kept her eyes fixated on the table.

"Awww! Your almost as cute as Ella-chan!" Rangiku squealed and crossed the table to envelop Sofia in a death hug.

Bree and Ana looked at Rangiku and then to me, asking me with their eyes. _"Is this girl crazy?"_

I was tempted to nod my head but I shook it instead, they seemed to doubt me but let it go for the moment.

As Sofia struggled to get out of Rangiku's grip Bree took the chance to introduce herself.

"Hi I'm Bree" she smiled at the bleach crew and then pointed her thumb at Ana "and this is Ana, also don't let Ana's shy nature or Sofia's endless questions bother you it's completely normal. For them that is."

"Thanks for the advice" Rukia answered in what I had seen as her nice girl act. Had she been acting like this all morning? Rukia went on "I'm Rukia Kuchiki."

"Ikkaku Madarame" Ikkaku said as he looked around the cafeteria.

"Yumichika Ayasegawa" he said giving his practically trademark hair flip

"Renji Abarai" Renji said puffing out his chest. Was he trying to look tough? It wasn't working.

"Toshiro Hitsugaya" he stated.

"Rangiku Matsumoto" she said, raising her hand to identify herself, giving Sofia the chance to push her off.

"Ichigo Kurosaki" Ichigo said, his scowl not disappearing from his face.

"Otherwise known as Strawberry" Rukia said and then began chuckling, I couldn't help It and started chuckling myself, though not as noticeably as Rukia.

Ichigo gave Rukia a quick glare as Ana spoke up.

"Strawberry?"

"One of the way's to read Ichigo's name in Japanese is Strawberry, hence the nickname" I looked at Ana who seemed to get it and kept talking "Now that the introductions are out of the way I suggest you guys finish your lunches, the period ends in less than ten minutes" I pointed to the clock on the wall.

Everyone took my advice and scarped down their food, only finishing minutes before the Bell rang. We said our goodbyes, and headed to our classes.

In art class I sat with Rangiku, Rukia, Yumichika and Ana. It was definitely an odd bunch to say the least but we got along and it was nice since the Art teacher really didn't "teach", and really just checked every ten minutes to see that we were working on our projects or in the new kids cases, doodling

Rukia spent the whole period drawing bunnies.

Rangiku drew what looked to be some sort of wasteland.

Yumichika tried to do a self portrait. Key word being tried.

Ana worked on her project, It was from what I could see so far some kind of forest with a clearing but it was still too soon to tell.

Me, well I'd been working on my painting depicting a scene from my childhood, I wasn't going to tell anyone what it was until I finished though.

By the end of the period our table was a mess, but we could care less, we had had a good time talking, well except for Ana who mostly listened.

The next period we were all together again. Me, Ana, Sofia, Bree, Ichigo, Renji, Ikkaku, Yumichika, Rukia, Rangiku, and Toshiro all sat in the back of the Government classroom as our teacher Mr. Mullan began lecturing.

Half way through the period I saw that Renji had fallen asleep on his desk diagonally in front of me, so I leaned back to Ichigo who was behind me and whispered to him.

"Renji's asleep" He looked over to confirm what I said and saw an evil grin cross his face.

"Got any scrap paper?"

I ripped a piece of paper form my mini notebook and handed it to him. He quickly made a mini paper football and I saw him aim it towards the back of Renji's head.

It hit his head dead center making Renji bolt right out of his seat.

"Is something wrong Renji?" Mr. Mullen asked genuinely concerned.

"Nothing sir" Renji head was downcast as he slide back into his chair, me and Ichigo stifling laughter.

The period ended without Renji falling asleep again, and the bleach crew headed off to American History while I headed off to yearbook.

I had insisted just as much as they had insisted to take advanced gym, for them to take American History. The only person who had supported my decision was Toshiro, so though we were outnumbered the rest were outranked. They needed to know some American history anyways if they were going to be here for a while, it would get suspicious if they didn't even know who George Washington was.

That left me with my only period to escape the chaos, Yearbook.

My last period came and went in the blink of an eye and before I knew it I was at my locker putting away my books for the day.

I had told the bleach crew to meet me at the entrance to the office after school to walk home, and was glad to find them there when I got there.

"So how was American History?"

"What's the point of learning about these "founding fathers" anyway?" Renji asked

"Did you fall asleep again" I looked at Renji in the eyes and raised one of my eyebrows.

"No!" he screamed

"Good, and well I don't quite know that yet either but everyone knows who they are so you should too." I finished the conversation by turning my back to him and making my way for the front doors.

"Where are you going?" I could hear Rukia ask.

"Home, and you should too unless you want to spend the night here." I said not turning around but kept walking.

I heard footsteps approach from behind me as Toshiro came up and walked beside me I could see everyone else behind me.

I didn't speak one the way home, just listened to everyone's stories of their first day and the occasional statement of not knowing what something was.

It was the most peaceful moment of the day I think.

They were in school now, The soul pager was being worked on, now all we had to do was wait.


	10. Chapter 10: Unexpected visitor

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any of it's characters

* * *

**Chapter 10: Unexpected visitor**

The next week or so went by at a steady pace, not too slow but not too fast either.

Me and the bleach crew kept going to school like normal and I saw that they were slowly adjusting to the change in lifestyle and even seemed to be making friends.

Rangiku and Sofia, despite their not so great first meeting, had found they had common interests (mostly talking) and were now the best of friends. Combined, you couldn't keep any secrets from them.

I had also seen Rukia and Bree talking at lunch. Though Rukia still used her nice girl act at school she didn't use it in front of us. The two of them really seemed to bond over thinking up ways to tease people endlessly, which wasn't so good for the rest of us.

Ikkaku, Renji, and Yumichika had been hanging out with some of the kids from the advanced gym class and though they seemed like good friends Ikkaku refused to admit it.

The weirdest of the group though was Ichigo and Ana. I had forgotten that Ichigo liked Shakespeare and with Ana's love of classic literature, I had seen them from time to time looking at a book together. It was really weird but I was happy that Ana was opening up to someone new.

As for me, well I'd been spending most of my time with Toshiro. We both loved peaceful and quiet places, so when I snuck out of the house for some needed relaxation, Toshiro ended up coming with me most of the time. It was really fun talking with him too, unlike the others he was honest but also really considerate. When we weren't just hanging out we would sometimes stop by Gadgets made easy to see if Teddy had had any luck.

It had been nearly two weeks now and Teddy had managed to find out nothing about how to fix Rukia's soul pager and we were all getting worried.

The good thing was that we at least knew we were well prepared in case of an attack. After I had washed everyone's shiakusho the first time I had found Rukia's glove in one of her pockets. When we had used the glove on everyone we had found that they were in gigai's and now had a way to separate their spirits if needed. The only thing I had questioned was why their gigai's had shiakusho. We still hadn't found out why.

Other than that though, my life was going smoothly. We were going to school every day, no one had gotten into any fist fights after my threat to pull them out of advanced gym and though there were arguments at home no one had killed each other yet.

Things never went as I planned as it seemed when I got a call from someone who really never called me. Ever.

It was a normal afternoon. Everyone except for Toshiro had stayed after school to play a game of basketball in the gym. Toshiro never stayed after school in the gym but I saw him once or twice sneak out of the house for his morning jog.

I was a part of the after school theater group and helped make the sets but we wouldn't start building for another two weeks so I had been going home with Toshiro almost every day.

As I plopped by schoolbag on the couch I heard the phone ring and walked into the kitchen to answer it as Toshiro went to put his things in his room.

I picked up the phone and immediately spoke "Taylor house, who's calling?"

"Wow that's really polite, you don't even give your name and ask for mine" I heard the voice tease over the phone and felt my jaw drop.

"Danny?! Why are you calling?! You never call!" I could hear him laugh at my reaction over the phone, he didn't need to see me to know what I looked like right now.

"Awww come on sis can't I just call to tell you how much I love you?"

"No" I answered, he only called me when he was still living with me to ask me favors or keep quiet about something.

"Killjoy" I heard him grunt and I was the one to laugh this time.

"So really, why are you calling?" I was really curious, I hadn't seen or even spoken to him since he moved in with his friend's family.

"I left something at home that I need for one of my classes next week so I was going to come over tomorrow get it." he replied honestly this time. I was glad he was being honest but what he said made me freak out.

"Come over? Why don't I just get whatever you need and drop it off at your friend's place?" I could tell I was panicking, I just hope he didn't catch on.

He didn't know I had the bleach crew in my house and apart from the fact I was letting seven people stay here I also didn't want to risk him finding out who they really were, he wasn't into anime like I was but he had seen my room enough, that he might find them familiar.

"Sorry I don't know where I put what I'm looking for so I'm going to have to search" I heard something in the background "Sorry sis I gotta go, I'll be there tomorrow at four, see you then."

"Wait!" I screamed but it was already too late as I heard the dial tone echo through the phone.

I stood there staring at the phone, not believing what had just happened.

"Who was that?" I turned to see Toshiro leaning against the doorway to the kitchen.

"My... little brother" I choked out the words, my mind still reeling with the new found information.

"You have a little brother?" Toshiro asked surprised and I couldn't blame him. We had spent a lot of time together since they had gotten here but I never mentioned my family to any of them.

"Yeah, and he said he's coming over tomorrow to pick something of his up. Toshiro, he doesn't know any of you are staying here, he'll freak when he finds out your all living here. Hell!, he might even recognize you guys!" I had my hands on my head in full freak out mode.

"Calm down, we'll talk about this once everyone gets home." he said placing his hands on my shoulders and looking me in the eye.

This calmed me down until I realized how close he was a backed up.

"Thanks Toshiro" I whispered looking away.

I think he actually smiled at me, must have just been my imagination.

Later that night once everyone had gotten home we decided what we would do and worked on our story half the night.

We would be ready tomorrow

* * *

I looked at the clock on the wall.

It said 3:58 p.m.

I sat at the kitchen table, tapping my fingers restlessly on the table as I waited for the doorbell to ring. We had decided as a group to tell my brother the whole situation, we had tried to think up cover stories but none worked without somehow involving my parents and there was no way I'd chance them finding out the situation. Unfortunately for me I was voted as the one to tell him, alone. Everyone else would come in after my initial explaining, to help back me up but not freak out my brother from the beginning.

So here I was, waiting at the kitchen table as the bleach crew waited in the the girl's room(also known as the basement).

I heard the doorbell and immediately bolted out of my chair, grabbing the door handle and swinging the door wide open.

I found a shocked version of my little brother, who then smirked upon seeing me.

I called him my little brother but he was by no means little. There he stood at 6'1, towering over me. His messy auburn hair reached his shoulders and his teal eyes seemed fixated on me as his smirk grew when he spoke "Did you miss me that much?" he teased

I was tempted to slam the door in his face. I couldn't believe I was related to him. Even worse I hated how much we resembled each other, with our similar faces, the same hair color(until I highlighted mine), and same eye color we had even been mistaken as twins when we were still the same height.

"Not a bit, though I see you haven't minded to look in the mirror lately, you need a haircut" I said pointing at his head.

He looked at his hair and sighed "I know, but you know my hair and I haven't had the time for a haircut"

I looked at him questioningly, I did know his hair and mine, our hair grew really fast but that wasn't an excuse "You're in eighth grade, what could keep you so busy?" I asked as he pushed his way past me and into the house making his way up the stairs to his room.

"None of your business" he said not bothering to stop and look behind him.

I followed him and found him staring into his room from the hallway.

"What happened to my room?" he asked as I peered inside. It was much cleaner than I had remembered it and there was a stack of books on the desk as well, some of them mine. I wasn't surprised though, Toshiro had been using his room and I hadn't expected him to just leave the room a mess like Danny did.

"Actually Danny I need to talk to you about something" I said, not brave enough to look him in the eye as he turned his attention to me.

"Ella... what's going on" Crap! He knew something fishy was up, I could hear it in his voice and though I had decided to tell him I was afraid of how he might react.

I grabbed his arm and lead him downstairs to the living room sitting us down on the couch as I began explaining everything that had happened the past two weeks. When I was done I looked at him, he was staring off into space and I was getting worried.

"Danny?" I managed to squeak squeak out.

"Yes?" he snapped out of his daze and looked at me.

"You okay?" I looked into his eyes to try and read his emotion. I couldn't.

"Fine, so let me get this straight two weeks ago just as you were about to go to bed, you saw a flash of light in the front yard and then characters from the anime "bleach" suddenly appeared?"

I nodded

"And now they're staying here while they try and make contact with their superiors so they can get home?"

I nodded again.

"I knew you loved anime, but I didn't think you liked it enough to make up stories about them." He had a hand on his head and shook in head in disbelief.

"I'm not making up stories!" I screamed. Then the door to the basement slammed open and I turned behind me to see Toshiro staring at us.

"She's not lying. I am Toshiro Hitsugaya. captain of squad ten" he exclaimed as the rest of the gang emerged from the basement and stood behind Toshiro.

Danny looked back and forth between me and the bleach crew as he fumbled to find words.

"He's... but how.?...so you're!..." I covered his gaping mouth and spoke to him

"Yes, their here and I'm telling the truth, do you believe me now?" I still had my hand over his mouth as he nodded and removed it from his.

The room plunged into silence before Danny finally asked a question

"Do mom and dad know?" he glanced at me and I immediately answered

"No. that's the only reason I told you because I didn't want you telling them" I was being dead serious, not a hint of the usual teasing in my voice that I used with him.

He stared at me for a long time before finally commenting.

"Fine, I won't tell them but I do want to be kept in the loop if anything happens" He said nonchalantly as he scratched the back of this head.

"Thank you Danny!" I almost tackled him to the ground in a hug

"So you did miss me!" Danny's smirk had returned as he hugged me back.

"As if!" suddenly annoyed I pushed him out of the hug and on to the ground, turning around as I heard snickering coming from behind me.

Now that we had finished our talk, everyone continued about their normal business, as Danny went up to his room to find whatever he had left here. He had told me he'd only be a minute and then he'd leave and asked me to wait for him at the door. I plopped down in the middle of staircase and waited for him to finish, only to be surprised when Toshiro sat down next to me.

"What are you doing?" I looked at him as he stared at the ceiling

"You were thinking of going out to relax after your brother leaves aren't you?" he said.

I honestly hadn't thought about that but now that he mentioned it it did sound like a good idea.

"No, but I think I'll listen to what you say and do just that"

"Mind if I come along?" he asked, he always asked and I always replied the same way

"Sure, if you want to" I shrugged my shoulders as he nodded in response.

"Aren't you two cute?" I heard some one say teasingly from behind me as my face turned red.

"Who the hell are you calling cute Danny?!" I screamed, but he started chuckling when he saw my face. Then he looked at his watch and stopped chuckling. "Okay sis I've got to go but I'll see you next week at homecoming" he said bolting out the door before I could say anything else.

I stood their staring at the door after Danny had left.

Shit! I hadn't forgotten homecoming was next Friday with all that had been going on! I racked my brain for when everything was supposed to happen. Today was Thursday, so that meant they voted tomorrow on who would be the candidates for king and queen. They would have an assembly Monday to announce to the whole school who the candidates were, then the game would be Friday and the dance on Saturday. The dance! My mind was overloading with all the newly remembered information when Toshiro interrupted my train of thought.

"You ready to go?" he asked looking at me, I caught a hint of concern in his voice.

"Ah.. yeah" I smiled and sat up walking out the door, Toshiro beside me.

I could worry about homecoming tomorrow, right now I was due for some time to relax and forget everything, if only for one afternoon.


	11. Chapter 11: So who're they going to be?

It took me forever to write this chapter! I think wrote it ten times in my head before I could even begin to type anything, so sorry for the wait!

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any of it's characters

* * *

**Chapter 11: So who're they going to be**

I sat at the the lunch table, staring at the table that was set up in the middle of the cafeteria.

Today was the day they voted to see who the candidates for homecoming king and queen would be, I hadn't really cared who they were in the past but this year it would be my classmates who would be up for the spots and my curiosity was getting to me.

No one else though seemed to really be paying it any mind though at the table, with the exception of Sofia and Rangiku who were trying to get everyone in on their conversation.

"So who do you think the candidates will be?" Sofia scanned the table for a response

"Probably the captains of the sports teams or the people who have a good social network" Bree said without even looking up from her food. I decided to jump in at that point.

"So your suggesting someone like Sofia?" I rolled my eyes, it was completely obvious she had meant her but I didn't know why she didn't just say it.

"What about me?" Rangiku whined giving me the most cliche puppy dog look. I wouldn't fall for it though.

"Rangiku you've only been here for two weeks, I don't think anyone will vote for you" I wasn't trying to be mean I was just trying to be honest but she pouted anyway.

"But Cap-Toshiro and the guys already have a lot of admirers, and so do I, It's possible!" she continued to pout, as I sighed.

It was true that in the very short time that they had been here bleach crew had already attracted a lot of attention, they were the talk of the school. All the guys had been drooling over Rangiku and if you asked any girl they would likely say they had a crush on at least one of the guys. All of them had fans, Rangiku and Toshiro even had unofficial fan clubs. Rangiku's followers called her a goddess(which frankly I thought was completely creepy) and Toshiro's called him their "Ice Prince" because of his attitude to practically everyone. If only they knew...

"What's so interesting about this homecoming thing anyway?" Renji asked

"It's not homecoming itself that were talking about right now it's the king and queen, the students vote on them, It's kind of like a popularity contest"

"It's totally wrong if you ask me, there are so many good people who never get put up even as candidates, who deserve it way more than some of the shallow girls that get queen." Bree grunted in disgust, and I had to agree with her, sometimes all it really was was a stupid popularity contest.

What came next though I would have never expected, Rangiku stopped pouting and a smile broke out on her face "You know what It would be so cute if Ella-Chan was a candidate!"

I almost spit the food I had been chewing across the table, but started coughing instead. Toshiro who was sitting next to me, checked to see if I was alright which of course got me nasty glares from Toshiro's fan club who was sitting at the next table. They really didn't like me even though I'd told them a thousand times that we were just friends.

After I had recovered from my coughing fit I looked over at Rangiku and gave her a quick glare

"Stop joking, that wouldn't be "cute" at all" I gave air quotes when I said cute to drive home my point.

"You know what? that actually would be pretty cool, you would make a good homecoming queen Ella" Bree said to me and I could tell she was actually not being sarcastic or teasing me for once.

"Please don't say things like that, you know I don't like unwanted attention, besides who would vote for me anyway?" I didn't mean for anyone to answer me but someone did

"Well, you do practically know everyone and everyone knows you because you do so much with yearbook and theater, you're like a more subtle version of Sofia, with a set of limitations built in." Bree smirked as she saw how annoyed I looked and ignorned the protest from Sofia about her not having limitations.

"Can we just drop this, there is no way I'd ever be voted as a candidate for homecoming queen, end of discussion." I stood up and stared everyone down, before going to throw my trash away.

I hated it when Bree was defended anything, she always gave valid reasons, usually ones I didn't want to hear. I did not in a million years want to be a homecoming queen, and I knew I wouldn't be, but did she have to scare me like that?

* * *

The weekend went by in a flash, me and Toshiro checked with Teddy again who hadn't had any progress with Rukia's soul pager, and I was tempted to make Toshiro give him his. He also had one but it was the same as Rukia's and only got static so he had insisted he keep his in case of an emergency. He won in the end, and the weekend was over without any progress in finding a way to get them home.

I sat in my office Monday morning,as I thought over what we could do next. It was fourth period so I was helping Mrs. Moore with some of her paperwork when I heard a knock on my door, and looked up to see who it was.

There stood Mrs. Moore in my doorway, her face stoic, a sheet of paper in her hands as she walked into my office.

"I have a job for you Ella so I'll be covering the rest of the paperwork."she slide the work out from under my hands as I eyed her questioningly.

"What sort of job?"I raised my eyebrow to her as she broke out into a big smile.

"I need you to inform all the homecoming king and queen candidates of their candidacy, then you'll announce the news over the intercom during lunch and that the assembly has been moved tomorrow since we couldn't tell them Friday" she managed to get out all in one breath .

I couldn't mask my shock, as I stared at her. I was supposed to tell them? Why me? Why not her?

"Here's the list of the Candidates , there's also instructions on what to tell them." She waved to me as she headed back to her desk "One more thing" she said as she stood in my office doorway "Congratulations sweetheart" and with that she left me sitting in my chair utterly puzzled.

I looked down at the list and nearly fainted at what I read

**Candidates for Homecoming**

**Queen:**

Rangiku Matsumoto

Amanda Gray

Nicole Jenkins

Sofia Griffeth

Ella Taylor

**King**

Dustin Shay

Sean Muller

Mark McKinley

Logan Reece

Toshiro Hitsugaya

I looked over the list again and again to see if my eyes were playing tricks on me. I decided they weren't after the tenth time.

Bree just had to go and jinx me! I didn't want to be homecoming queen, or run against Rangiku and Sofia! I looked at the list one last time before grabbing it and stuffing it into my pocket and getting up. I walked out of my office and grabbed the big binder sitting on top of Mrs. Moore's computer, it had all the information on every student's schedule so anyone in the office could find anyone anywhere.

I opened the door and left the office, flipping through the book as I did.

I wasn't going to enjoy what I knew I had to do, but I wanted to get it over with as quickly and painlessly as possible.


	12. Chapter 12: With me!

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any of it's characters

* * *

**Chapter 12: With me?!**

I looked around the room at all the people I had gathered. I had gotten permission from Mrs. Moore to borrow one of the empty classrooms and had asked them all to take a seat while I mentally gathered my courage to tell them. It was proving to be very difficult, but hey, I had the most popular people in school all in one room, who wouldn't be nervous?!

I looked over the room.

Rangiku and Sofia were chatting in the corner thinking up theories on what they were doing here and I saw Toshiro in the back, not attempting to talk to anyone, but the rest of the group I didn't really know personally.

Both the other girl candidates were captains. I knew that Amanda was the captain of the volleyball team and was said to be very driven to win. Nicole was the captain of the school's cheer leading squad and was very... perky and energetic, evident by the fact that she was squirming and looked like she would jump out of her seat any minute.

The boys on the other hand were all _very _different. Dustin was the only captain among them, the football team to boot. He was really big and known for not being the sharpest crayon in the box. Sean I could tell was definitely only here because of his looks, he was the school's playboy you might say but refused to say it. Mark was the one who surprised me though, being on the school's debate team didn't really make one popular so I had no idea how he had gotten voted here. Lastly there was Logan, he was actually pretty normal except for the way he dressed. He was in a band that played punk music and it seemed that his attire was the same off stage as it was on.

I continued debating what to say until one of them finally asked the questioned

"What are we doing here?" I turned to see Nicole who was no longer seated, looking at me

"Ummm... I've brought you all here to tell you... that you've all been voted candidates for homecoming king and queen" I both did and didn't want to see the looks on their faces.

"Really?!" Rangiku and Sofia squealed in unison

"Yes" I groaned, this was why I didn't want to do this "I've been told to tell you that the homecoming assembly will be tomorrow and that you should bring the clothes you will wear to the dance with you, don't come to school in them though"I looked to see if they got the message but the girls were already in their own world and were in a circle chatting about their dresses. The boys were talking to each other about who they were going to the dance with or who they wanted to ask out.

I left them to their talks and sat down at the teachers desk in the front of the room.

They chatted for a while and I let them, Mrs. Moore had given me the rest of the period to talk to them but I had already said everything I needed. I stared at the ceiling utterly bored then looked to Toshiro in the back who looked like he was asleep, but I could tell he was talking to Hyorinmaru, he always looked like he was asleep when he did.

I was brought out of my stare though when a hand waved in front of my face.

"Hello? Anybody in there?" I looked up to see Logan smiling at me "Good, so you are still alive"

"Why wouldn't I be?" I stood up and he shrugged

"You looked like a zombie to me" he mumbled then asked me "So can we go back to class now?"

"Sure, I'll take you all back now" I walked to the door and reached for the handle, when Nicole stopped me by grabbing it first.

"Before we go back to class I have one last question, where's the last candidate for queen? There should be five and there are only four hear" This got everyone's attention and I mentally groaned, I really didn't want to do this.

"I'm the last candidate" trying not to let my irritation known in my voice.

I saw a few eyes widen and Toshiro sit up in his chair "You?" Nicole stammered

"Yes me, now let's get you back to class" I slide past her and grabbed the doorknob, opening the door and gesturing them out of the classroom. They silently obliged and followed my lead back to their classrooms.

I could see the looks I was getting from the group, and frankly I was relieved when I sat back down in my office, before the bell rang that is.

* * *

The walk home from school was silent as me and Toshiro didn't know what to talk about. Most of the time the silence was comfortable but now it was far from that.

"I can't believe that I'm a candidate for homecoming queen" I finally said.

"Why do you find that so unbelievable?" Toshiro asked, turning to me.

I couldn't believe he even had to ask " Why? I hate being the center of attention, and homecoming queen defines just that! Anyone who knows me well enough knows that!" I was close to screaming as I finished and out of breath from my sudden outburst.

"That's the reason why you were nominated I think, you do everything you can to help others shine, and they know and recognize that" He didn't look at me when he said it but couldn't blame him, that sounded way out of character for him.

"Uhhh.. really?" I whispered

"Really" He still wouldn't look my way.

This conversation was getting us nowhere so I decided to change topics. "So are you going to ask anyone to the dance or are we just going as a group? I hear Sofia wants to rent a limo, she's crazy if she thinks we'll help pay for it" We could walk to the dance, why did she think we needed a limo?

"I wasn't really thinking about that" he answered "What about you?"

"Well I've never gone with a date before but It's my senior year and I've been thinking I should, I don't know who to ask though"

I honestly didn't have anyone to ask, I knew a lot of guys but wasn't really close with any of them let alone like any of them.

I started thinking about who to ask when a question stopped all my thinking.

"Do you want to go together?"

All thought process' stopped and I nearly tripped over my own feet before I caught myself.

"What did you say?" I barely managed to choke out.

"I asked do you want to go together... with me" I could hear him clear as day even with him looking at the ground when he said it. Even though most of face was covered by his hair because he was looking down, I could see his face was flushed.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

_Thee Toshiro Hitsugaya was blushing dammit!_

"Sure" I said without thinking and I saw Toshiro relax slightly.

"Okay then, I have to check something at home now, so I'm going ahead" He said before he dashed off ahead of me leaving me standing there.

I looked at where he had left and looked at my watch.

It said 2:48 p.m.

I still had an hour before everyone else got home and I trusted Toshiro to watch the house.

I had one hour to myself.

I think that was enough time to cool myself down, and calm the scarlet on my reddening cheeks.

* * *

The assembly went by the next day and I did my best to get through it. It was the same every year. They would introduce the candidates and tell the school a little bit about who we are and what we did. It mostly for the underclassmen who didn't know certain candidates, since the entire student body voted and not all of them knew all of us.

I remember Toshiro asking me an occasional question from his chair behind me as the principal talked about us but other than that I mostly tuned everyone out until it was over.

The rest of the week went by in a flash. Almost every conversation was about who was going with who and who they though would win homecoming king and queen.

I didn't care who won homecoming king or queen so I mostly listened in to find out who was going with who.

I had told my friends that I was going with Toshiro, then saying to keep it quiet. I didn't want to be mauled by his fan club thank you very much.

Ichigo and Rukia were going together, which didn't surprise me, no matter how they acted, we knew they liked each other even if they hadn't fully realized it yet.

Rangiku was forcing Renji to be her date, and I felt sorry sorry for him but wouldn't get in Rangiku's way.

Everyone else had decided to go as a group, and we had all made Sofia through out the idea of a limo.

Before I knew it I was walking home from school on Friday, not believing that I had to go to the game tonight just because I was a homecoming queen candidate. I didn't like watching sports, especially football.

Tonight was the night they were crowned, tomorrow tonight they would have the dance.

I just had to get through tonight then I could party the night away tomorrow.

One night, I could get through one game of football.


	13. Chapter 13: Surprise, Surpise

yeah! I can't believe I've gotten this far already, I wanted to say thanks to everyone for the positive reviews! and to let everyone know that I'll try to fix any grammatical errors wherever I find them as soon as possible

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any of it's characters

* * *

**Chapter 13: Surprise, Surprise**

I hate football.

Here I was in stuck in the bleachers in the cold surrounded by noisy fans. I supported the football team, I always congratulated the team members the day after, but I didn't want to be here and no matter how much one begged me they would never get me here again.

I glanced at the scoreboard and saw we were losing 13-5.

Our football team was never that good to begin with and here we were playing our rivals, I could hope, but I had a feeling that the night wouldn't end well.

I drew my eyes away from the scoreboard and looked over the field and crowd.

On the field I could see Dustin had the team in a huddle and Nicole lead her squad in a cheer, something that implied "kick their asses". I also saw my brother in with the marching band. Even though he was in middle school, his school always played with my high school's band during homecoming. He spotted me as I was looking at him and gave me a slight wave, followed by a familiar smirk and I felt the urge to smack him but couldn't so I diverted my attention to the crowd.

In the bleachers I actually saw that the rest of the homecoming candidates were together, except me, Toshiro, Rangiku and Sofia who were sitting with our friends. I also the teachers down front. Mrs. Moore was talking Jill's ear off from the looks of it.

I jumped when I felt a hand grasp my shoulder and looked around to see it was Ana.

"You okay? I know you don't like going to games" she looked concerned and didn't let go of my shoulder till I brushed off her hand.

"I should be asking you that, you're the one who hates crowds" I stared at her as she chuckled.

"True" she said, settling back into her seat.

I took a glance at the scoreboard again it was now 15-5, we were still losing.

I wasn't really paying much attention to the game, I was really paying more attention to the time, so that when the crowning at half time ended I could go home, I was pretty sure we wouldn't win and I didn't want to be around when we lost.

I heard the the ref call for the end of the first half. Then the Principal walked out to the middle of the field with a microphone and two envelopes in hand, Mrs. Moore following her with two crowns.

"Good Evening everyone" she said, silencing the crowd "I see we have a nice turnout tonight but I guess you all know why that is" A roar of cheers erupted from the crowd "Settle down everyone, I have here in my hand the names of our homecoming king and queen." she said followed by more cheering.

She quickly opened the first envelope started reading

"And your homecoming King is... well I don't believe it! We have a tie everyone!" She said utterly baffled, as the students in the bleachers started whispering in disbelief. She quickly recovered though and continued.

"Students! I'd like you to call down your homecoming kings, Logan Reece and Toshiro Hitsugaya!" I nearly choked on air and turned to Toshiro who was sitting next to me in the stands. I couldn't tell what he was feeling from his face but if I had to guess he seemed extremely uncomfortable with the new news. He was ushered down the to the field though, against his will I might add, by a pushy Rangiku.

I saw that Logan was already standing next to Mrs. Moore when Toshiro finally got on the field. I saw her hold the king's crown out to Logan and Toshiro, and Toshiro pass the crown to Logan who humbly accepted it.

I was definitely going to bug Toshiro about this later, that would be fun.

I looked back at the principal who was opening the second envelope as she prepared to announce who the queen was.

"And now for your homecoming queen! Congratulations Miss Ella Taylor!"

I was having a nightmare right? Somebody please tell me I was!

I slide down into my seat, hoping no one would notice me, but that never worked.

"What are you doing Ella get on down there now!" Bree said and nearly pushed me down the the stands. I told her I'd walk on my own though.

As I walked onto the field I could hear cheering coming from the bleachers, the loudest coming from the the far end, where I spotted my group from theater.

I reached Mrs. Moore who congratulated me with a hug and placed the crown on my head. I whispered a thanks a stood next to Toshiro.

"Now lets give one more round of applause for you homecoming kings and queen" the principal said as she gestured to us.

The crowd cheered but quickly quieted down as the principal lead us off the field to start the second half.

As me and Toshiro made our way back to our seats we were repeatedly stopped by students who congratulated us.

I finally felt like I could breath again the moment I found my seat , but Rangiku quickly suffocated me as she grabbed me in a huge hug from behind me.

"Congrats Ella-Chan! I knew you'd win!" Her grip seemingly tightening with every word.

"Hey did you forget me Rangiku?" I saw Sofia appear over Rangiku's shoulder.

"You know I'd never forget you Sofie-chan" she released her grip on me to hug Sofia "I knew one of you would win" she said and tried to make herself look innocent.

"Yeah, yeah, I had a feeling she'd win too alright so no hard feelings?" she looked at Rangiku and then me and I nodded.

I then went back to watching the game after Rangiku and Sofia started talking about their dresses for tomorrow night. I had originally planned to sneak out of the bleachers after the homecoming king and queen were announced, but now I bet that would attract a lot of attention so I decided to get comfy and slide back in my seat

"What are you doing?" I looked at a confused Toshiro

"Getting comfy, since I can't sneak out of here without getting noticed I may as well try to get comfy" I said

He just gave me one more glanced then looked back at the field.

I looked at the scoreboard yet again.

It said 34-11, and we were being thoroughly beaten.

The game ended with the score 45-11 and though spirits were definitely deflated as we filed out of the bleachers, I could tell that that would all change tomorrow night as we made our way home, listening to the whispers of what tomorrow night would bring

* * *

I had to spend all of the next day getting ready for the dance.

All day!

Sofia, Bree and Ana invaded my house in the morning and promptly woke me up with their rather loud entrance. Then I was forced through hours of hair twirling and makeup. In the past all I had done was bought a dress and slipped it on maybe an hour before the dance, I never knew getting ready could take so long.

I felt like I had been to the ends of the earth and back, when we finally left the house to head to the dance.

I walked in silence as Sofia talked with me, I only caught a few words though, something like I should be proud to be homecoming queen. By the time we got to the school, the dance was already well underway, as I could hear the music the moment the school came into view.

As we approached the school I reached into my bag and handed the bleach crew their tickets "The dance ends at 11 so we'll all meet up here then, understood?" I saw nods from Rukia and Rangiku who then dragged theirs dates into the school.

I sighed and turned around to find that my friends had disappeared into the school. Now I was all alone with Toshiro who stared at me as I stared at where my friends had disappeared.

"Are we going to go in?" he twisted himself so that his face was in front of mine as he asked.

I nearly fell backwards as I backed up "Yeah, let's go"

I walked in front of him as I knew he'd follow me, giving our tickets to the girl running the ticket booth.

To say that the room was packed was an understatement, our school used the cafeteria as the dance floor and even with most of the tables removed for the dance, the dance floor itself looked unnavigable.

I was looking at the dance floor when I felt a hand grab my wrist which sent me in the direction of the remaining tables still in the cafeteria. Toshiro let go of my wrist once he sat me down at one of the tables, then sat next to me.

I listened to the music coming from the speakers before I decide to speak up, loudly I might add, I could barely hear my own voice over the music.

"So, why did you drag me over here?"

He didn't look at me or answer my question, asking one of this own.

"I thought you disliked noisy places?" he turned to me as he finished.

"I normally do, but this is the one place that I like that's noisy and still fun." I looked over at the dance floor, almost laughing as someone tried to break dance and ended up nearly falling face first onto the floor.

Toshiro didn't say anything else and followed my gaze. We just sat their, watching the dance floor without saying a word to each other, only being interrupted when a boy asked to dance with me or a girl with Toshiro. We turned them all down. I really wanted to take this stupid crown off, it made me stick out like a sore thumb. Toshiro didn't need the king's crown though he already stuck out like a sore thumb without it.

I ignored the death glares I got from Toshiro's fan club the entire time we sat together, enjoying the moment, then I heard the song over the speakers change. It was a slow song, so a lot of people left the dance floor to take a small break.

I jumped when I saw a hand extend out to me, and looked up to see Toshiro had stood up and was now in front of me

"Want to dance?" he asked calmly, as I took his hand

"Sure, but really? a slow dance?" I glanced at him as we walked onto the dance floor

"Something wrong with that?" he grabbed my waist and I felt red tint my cheeks

"N-No, but I'm warning you now, I'm not a really good dancer" I warned, but he was already leading me around the dance floor with ease

After he had nearly lead me around the floor twice I finally decided to start talking.

"I didn't know you could dance" I said to which he sighed

"Rangiku made me take lessons with her because no one else would" I could believe that. I don't think any of her drinking buddies could stand to practice with her, for one reason or another. I glanced around as we fell back into silence and decided to change the subject when I caught a glance of Logan across the floor.

"That was nice of you to give the king's crown to Logan"

"I didn't deserve it or want it" he nearly grunted

"I know what you mean, I wish I could take off this crown" I said quickly braking my hand away from his momentarily to point to my crown.

"You do deserve it though" he stated

"I don't know, I can't really see why I won." I looked at the ground as I said it, but was both shocked and embarrassed when Toshiro cupped his hands around my face lifting up my head to make me look at him.

"You deserve that crown, it's a symbol that people know how kind and loving you are" he stared into my eyes and I could tell how deadly serious he was.

He continued to stare at me, his hands still cupping my face.

He was starting to scare me "Toshiro?" I asked.

What came next though gave me the biggest shock of my life, I felt his lips against mine as he pulled me close to him. He continued to pull me deeper into the kiss until he finally realized I needed to breath, and broke away from me.

I was a deep red as I stared at the floor, and Toshiro's face was flushed from ear to ear as I gave him a quick glance.

_Why did he do that?! I though we were friends... Why didn't I push him away? What does that mean?  
_

I thought, ignoring the stares we were getting from onlookers, and came to an answer to my questions.

I loved Toshiro.

But did he love me back? He never really said he loved me and was always so casual around me, what did he really feel?

I didn't get to ask my questions though as I heard a ringing come from my bag.

I reached inside and grabbed my phone, both annoyed and relieved by the distraction and answered the call. I didn't even get one word in though before the caller started talking and my eyes widened as listened.

"Really?!" I screamed into the phone and got a yes from the other line. "We'll be right there!" I said and snapped the phone shut.

I turned to Toshiro who had recovered and said "Find the rest of the gang and meet me outside the school" not giving him the chance to question me, I raced for the exit, simultaneously pulling out the flats I had stashed in by bag and taking off the heals I was wearing.

It was long walk from here where we were headed, not one for a girl in heels.


	14. Chapter 14: Warning

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any of it's characters

* * *

**Chapter 14: Warning**

I waited impatiently at the school's front door, tapping my foot to try and keep the little patience I had left. After a few minutes I spotted Toshiro with the gang in tow behind him looking worse for wear.

Renji supported a hiccuping Rangiku who was, on closer inspection, dead drunk. Rukia and Ichigo were angry at each other refusing to look at the other, and Yumichika was calming an angered Ikkaku.

"What the hell happened to her" I pointed at Rangiku "She looks drunk! There isn't even any alcohol here!" I looked at Renji for an explanation.

"She brought her own sake and no I didn't know about it" He slung her over his shoulder as he finished.

I wanted to say something but decided it was better left for when she was sober and grabbed Toshiro's wrist.

"Come on, you've been keeping me waiting long enough let's get going!" I said, picking up my pace as we left the school grounds, making sure everyone was following me still as we did.

"You never told us where we were going" Rukia remarked as she ran up beside me.

"Where was the first place I took you when you got here?" I questioned as I saw the surprise appear on her face when it dawned on her where we were going.

"He was able to fix it?!" she nearly shrieked

"I think so but we can't be certain yet" with that, everyone was now full out running, thank goodness it was dark out, so no one could see us running like maniacs down the street and into the nearly empty plaza.

We reached the door to gadgets made easy and I looked at the storefront. The lights were out and it looked closed but I knocked on the door anyway, and heard the sound of footsteps. A moment later the door opened and I saw Teddy, he looked completely exhausted but ushered us inside anyway.

"Teddy you look like you haven't been sleeping, having you been going to your classes properly?" I grabbed his shoulder when he wobbled a bit but then he stood up straight and looked at me.

"I'm fine Ella, yes I have been going to my classes but no I haven't been sleeping" he nearly smiled at the end.

He always had been blunt. "Thanks for trying not to make me worry" I rolled my eyes at him, the sarcasm evident in my voice.

I was about to comment on him taking care of his health when someone cut in.

"So what did you call us here for?" I heard Toshiro say.

"Ah! About that, you know that I've been trying to fix your friend's pager but wasn't getting anywhere right? Well first I looked over every millimeter inside and out and found that no parts were missing or damaged so it had to be the signal. I've been trying every frequency I could for days and I finally got someone!" he looked triumphant in his new found discovery.

"Where's my soul pager?" Rukia said stepping in front of Teddy.

"It's in the back" he exclaimed and directed us form the dimly lit storefront to the backroom. The back room was actually pretty clean so we all fit in it alright. The walls were lined with shelves filled with unopened boxes and there was a table in the middle of the room covered in papers and an open laptop, then I spotted Rukia's soul pager.

I watched as Teddy went and picked up the pager and said "I've had them on hold for a while now, I'm going to put them on speaker" he pressed a button and the room went silent.

Then I heard a familiar laughter fill the room followed by a voice "I hope everyone is doing well!"

"Urahara!" I heard Ichigo shout into the pager as Teddy placed it back down on the table.

"Why hello Kurosaki-kun" his tone of voice was beginning to annoy me and Ichigo as well as his scowl was deeper than I'd ever seen it.

"What the hell did you do Urahara!" Ichigo screamed into the phone again.

"Well..." Urahara started to say but was cut off as another voice came from the phone "Just tell them already Kisuke".

"I was going to Yoruichi" Urahara whined "As you already know you're in another universe, and that is my doing" he stated

"What were you thinking Urahara!" it was Rukia who screamed this time.

Urahara didn't seemed fazed by Rukia's comment and continued "Using both combined and complex kido spells that I placed both here at my shop and individually on all of you the goal of this was to teleport all of you back to my shop." Toshiro cut in at this point.

"What was the purpose of this?" he asked calmly but his expression told another story.

I heard Urahara's tone of voice change as he spoke up again.

"I was developing this, to use in the winter in the case that we needed to evacuate injured or..." Urahara trailed off not talking saying anything about the other reason but what really caught me though was one thing he said, "to use in the winter", he couldn't possibly mean...

I spoke up trying to disguise the fear in my voice "I have to ask... what is the situation with Aizen right now?" I looked around the room and was greeted with angry expressions.

Yoruichi was the first to speak up "Currently Aizen resides in Hueco Mundo, and has been sending arrancar here to Karakura town." she stated flatly "Now may I ask who you are?"

"My name's Ella Taylor, I've been taking care of and housing everyone you sent here" I said and heard chuckling come from Urahara.

"You have now? So Miss Taylor how has that been treating you? I hope none of them..." the playfulness in his voice was irritating and thankfully he was cut off by a growl from Toshiro.

"She has been kind enough to let us stay with her, that is all" he said icily and I felt the temperature of the room drop.

Ichigo thankfully changed the subject "So what are you going to do about this Urahara?" to which he immediately responded.

"As you know the experiment didn't turn out as I had planned and instead of you ending up in my shop you ended up where you are now. Unfortunately the kido spells I had constructed here in the shop blew up when I activated your kido spells. Luckily though I was able to read that the kido spells that I put on you are still intact and useable. It will take a few weeks for me to reconstruct the kido spells here at the shop and properly set them up for them to transport you here."

"So in the end we have to wait again" I turned around to see Renji put a now sleeping Rangiku on the floor.

"Yes, but before we go we have some information for all of you" Yoruichi exclaimed and everyone turned their attention to the pager.

"During the weeks since your disappearance here, there have been no arrancar attacks and few hollow attacks as well" Her voice was dead serious as she continued "If we know where you are it's likely that Aizen does as well"

"You're not saying.." I tried to finish my sentence but Yoruichi finished it for me.

"Yes. It's highly likely that Aizen will send arrancars to track them all down and bring them back here, so you need to be prepared in the case of an attack." I looked at everyone, but none of them looked me in the eye, then I looked back at the soul pager and asked.

"May I speak with you and Urahara alone Yoruichi?"

I heard a startled "Yes" escape Yoruichi's throat and them turned to Teddy who had been watching us silently as he leaned against the door to the storefront.

"Teddy? Can you take everyone to the storefront, I won't be long." He nodded and gestured everyone out of the room, except Toshiro who wouldn't budge.

"Toshiro... I'll only be a minute...please.." I pleaded to him, as he sighed and proceeded to walk out the room, leaving me alone as he closed the door behind himself.

"So what did you want to talk about Miss Taylor?" the cheerfulness in Urahara's voice was almost sickening.

"You said that arrancars would likely come here to attack, is there a possibility they would attack people other than Toshiro and everyone?" I needed to ask even if I didn't like the answer.

Urahara became serious again as he answered "Yes, arrancars are still hollow after all and will target those with high spiritual pressure. I'm correct in assuming that you have high spiritual pressure?" He asked as I flinched.

After we had found Rukia's glove and found out that everyone were in gigai's, Toshiro had told me that my spiritual pressure was extremely high for a human, and that many of those around me at school also had slightly higher than normal spiritual pressure.

"Yes" I said and Yoruichi cut in before Urahara could say anything.

"I'm sure you're worried, but if your spiritual pressure is high then I would learn to defend yourself, ask Kuchiki for some lessons in kido"

I couldn't believe what she was suggesting "What?! But I'm human!"

"So? If your spiritual pressure is high enough it doesn't really matter, all you need is some lessons and practice" she said nonchalantly.

I stammered and searched for the right words but I heard Urahara's voice become playful again as I did.

"Soooo you're close with the young captain now? "Toshiro and everyone" is it?"

My face turned beet red as I tried to distract myself from the memories of what had happened less than hours ago at the dance as I heard a thud come from the pager and Yoruichi say

"Sorry about Kisuke, anyway we'll contact you if we have any news" with that the I heard a click as the phone went silent.

I picked up the soul pager and stared at it them walked out of the back room to find everyone waiting for me at the door.

"You guys done?, I can't believe you were actually telling the truth Ella" Teddy said as we walked towards the front door.

"I told you the truth from the beginning, you just wouldn't believe me" I said giving him a quick glare.

We then left the store and said our goodbyes to Teddy, starting our walk home. I looked at my phone for the time.

It said 11:09 p.m.

We had missed the end of the dance. I glanced back at the bleach crew who was walking behind me. Renji was carrying the sleeping Rangiku and all in all nobody seemed in the mood for talking right now.

After talking with Yoruichi and Urahara though I was already thinking about how we could handle the current situation.

I stopped dead in my tracks and Rukia bumped into my back

"Why'd you stop Ella?" she asked and stepped back.

I turned around to look at everyone who was giving me questioning looks as I finally said

"I know just what we can go tomorrow"

With that I took out my phone and started dialing, continuing to walk home.

Leaving behind more than one clueless soul reaper.


	15. Chapter 15: Where are we going?

Sorry that it took so long for me to update, I've been really busy and haven't had the time to write for the two weeks...

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any of it's characters

* * *

**Chapter 15: Where are we going? **

My eyes fluttered open as sunlight poured into the room, waking me up. I sat up in my bed and stretched my arms, followed by a huge yawn, as I made my way out of bed. I got dressed as I replayed the events that happened the night before. We had went to the dance, then Toshiro he... I blushed as I couldn't even think about what he had done with a clear head. Then after getting a call from Teddy we had rushed to his work and talked to Urahara and Yoruichi with Rukia's soul pager. Once we were done, we had all decided to head home, where everyone immediately retired after what had been a long day. I was pulled out of my thoughts as I finished dressing and heard noise coming from downstairs. I decided to go check on what was going on.

I left my room and took the steps two at a time, making my way to the kitchen to finding everyone already up and there.

I glanced across the room. Ichigo was making breakfast, which didn't surprise me. I had made it clear that he was the only one other than me who was allowed to use anything in the kitchen. Everyone else didn't even know how to operate the microwave, and it was rational to think that one of them could accidentally sent the kitchen on fire.

Renji. Ikkaku and Yumichika were chatting about fighting styles, while Rukia listened and gave an occasional eye roll to certain comments.

The one who caught my eye though was Rangiku, who was clutching her head in her hands, which was on the table. I heard her groan as Toshiro said " This is your punishment for drinking so much". She was defiantly hungover but I couldn't help think that Toshiro had done something to make it worse.

"I don't think I've ever seen her hungover, it's weird seeing her not cheerful" I tried to get a closer look at her but failed when she buried her face into the table.

"Stop yelling..." I heard her murmur, she must have gotten more drunk than I thought.

At the sound of a car honk, Rangiku's groaning got louder and if possible, she buried her face even deeper into the table.

"I'll be right back" I gave everyone a quick glance to make sure they'd heard me then dashed out the front door.

I closed the door behind me and looked over my driveway which now had two cars in it, one was a rather large cargo van, and the second was a small red beetle. As I walked off the porch, I saw the driver of the cargo van hop out and make a mad dash at me, hugging me as she talked.

"Hey Ella, I didn't really get to congratulate you on winning homecoming queen, I wasn't able to catch you at after the game Friday or at the dance, you just disappeared!" She let go as she gave me a questioning look

"Sorry Lizzy, I had to leave the dance a little early" I said as she still seemed curious but let the subject drop. She sighed and then leaned her back a against the van for a moment, her frizzy red hair flattening again the van's door.

"So what did you want the van for anyway?" she asked as we walked down the driveway to the beetle "You know we don't start making the set for at least another week, what else could you need the van for?"

I looked at her as she leaned against the beetle and gave a slight nod to the driver. It really was an odd request to ask for the van now, the van that our school's theater owned and used for hauling equipment, when we hadn't even started practice but It was the perfect size that I needed. Lizzy was the one who kept the van when we weren't in the middle of a production since her house had a two car garage. Thankfully, being in charge back stage gave me certain privileges.

"I just needed it for something, can we leave it at that?"

"For now" she shrugged at me, then tied up her hair in a ponytail before sliding into the passenger's seat of the beetle. Rolling down the window she started talking as the car slowly pulled out of the driveway.

"By the way, I didn't tell the director you have the van so if you haven't told him you should! You owe me one! I left the keys in the ignition!" the last part she yelled as the car sped off.

I watched as the car drove off until it swerved right down a side street and went out of sight, then went back to the van. I opened the driver's side and grabbed the keys, before going back into the house where everyone was waiting for me in the kitchen

"Who was that?" Rukia said looking confused, it was warranted though, we didn't usually get visitors this early or any to say the least.

"A friend" I twirled the car keys around one of my fingers a I took a seat at the table next to her "Now let's eat breakfast, we're going out after we finish"

"All of us?" Rukia again questioned.

"Yep! Now come on, we don't want to waste any more time!"

I grabbed a muffin off the kitchen counter, as everyone proceeded to grab breakfast not daring to continue questioning me. After a quick breakfast, and everyone getting changed, I led them all outside and told them to pile in the van.

"Careful, the back doesn't have seats so you'll have to sit on the floor"

"That doesn't seem very safe" Rukia said, cautiously peering into the back of the van.

"True, but since when have any of you ever played it on the safe side?" I didn't get any more complaints after that.

After a lot of adjusting and cramming, I buckled my seat belt and started the car, hearing the engine roar to life. I glanced over at the passenger seat to find Toshiro had already hopped in and buckled himself, then glanced to everyone in the back.

"Everyone ready?" It was more of a rhetorical question but I got some nodded heads anyway "Good" I set my eyes on the road as we pulled out of the driveway, and off the street, making a course for the nearest highway.

* * *

I thought the drive would be quiet for once with Rangiku as hungover as she was, I was dead wrong. She sobered up after about five minutes of driving and questioned me constantly the entire way, which was absolute torture considering the drive took thirty minutes. After getting on the highway we drove out of the suburbs and into what was simply farmland and wooded areas. After twenty minutes of endless farms I finally pulled off at our exit. I got strange looks from everyone as we drove down the dirt road through a wooded area before coming to a point where the road cut off before a huge tree, where I stopped.

I hopped out of the driver's seat the second I took the key out of the ignition and waved them out "Come on, what are you sitting there for get out already!, and Rukia get everyone out of their gigai's"

I opened the doors to the back of the van, after Rukia had proceeded to have everyone exit their gigai's, before letting everyone step out onto the ground.

"Where are we?" I turned around to see Ichigo looking around, almost squinting, as if he'd find something hidden beyond the trees.

"A small forest about thirty minutes from my house, you'd be surprised how much farmland and forests there are just outside the suburbs" I walked up behind him as he glanced back at me.

"And why are we here?" he asked

"Because this land is private, my grandfather owns it, but since he's a farmer and this land can't be used to farm, it goes unused. I asked my grandfather if I could use it under the assumption that I would be studying plant life for one of my science classes and he gave me the okay."

"That still doesn't answer why you brought us here" I turned around and had to crane my neck to meet Renji's face.

"You don't get it do you?" I looked over everyone's faces to once again only see confusion "We're in a secluded area, where no one will bother us and we can do whatever we want because no one ever comes here... you can train here you idiots!" Were they really this dense? Yes, yes they were apparently.

Realization dawned on their faces, as I saw Ikkaku start grinning madly before he disappeared into the woods. I thought about calling out to him but he was probably long gone by now, so I turned to Yumichika instead

"Can you make sure that he get back here by sunset?, we're leaving then." I said before turning to everyone "Also if any of you get hungry I brought food for us, it's in the car so get some if you get hungry"

With that everyone seemed eager to train, they had after all been forbidden from any training in the last three weeks.

Yumichika started walking in the direction Ikkaku had ran off to, With a cheery Rangiku on his tail. Toshiro gave me a slight glance before disappearing himself, in a flash of shunpo. Lastly Renji and Ichigo started to walk off as I heard them discuss what to do for their training session as Rukia tagged along behind them. I caught Rukia's wrist though before she could follow them into the woods.

She turned around in surprise before glancing down at the hand I had firmly wrapped around her wrist.

"Ella?" she seemed more surprised that I had grabbed her so forcefully.

I looked over her shoulder to check and see if Ichigo and Renji were still there, they weren't.

I looked back at Rukia as she continued to stare at me, her eyes telling me she demanded an answer for my behavior.

I gulped and let her go, but didn't lose eye contact as I said

"I want you to teach me kido"


	16. Chapter 16: Training Mysteries

I am so so so sorry! I won't go into details as to what kept me from writing (It would take way too long) but hopefully I'll be able to start updating again soon. I will not abandon this but it may be a while before I can start writing again regularly. Thanks to all those who are still reading and I hope to be back for good soon.

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any of its characters

* * *

**Chapter 16: Training Mysteries**

I continued to stare at Rukia, hoping she would say yes, or something for that matter to what I had asked of her.

"You want me to do what?" she asked me, speaking only barely above a whisper.

"You heard me, I want you to teach me kido" not breaking eye contact with her, if anything pleading with her through that gaze. I didn't want to be helpless not when friends were possibly in danger.

She continued to stare at me, a look of pity and understanding making its way onto her face before she started shaking her head as if to dispel her feelings.

"Ella…. you're human, you cannot learn kido. I wish I could but it just isn't possible" she responded as if trying to reason with me.

"How do you know that a human can't learn kido? Has anyone ever tried to teach a human kido before?" She almost interrupted me after my first question but after hearing my second seemed to really think about what I had said. I trusted Urahara. If he said I could learn kido then I could. What would he gain from lying to someone he didn't even know?

"Look Rukia all I'm asking is that you at least try to teach me first before rejecting the idea, if it turns out I can't learn it then I'll leave you alone."

She looked at me then the sky then at me again before letting out a long sigh. "Alright I'll teach you kido but if you don't make any progress by sundown then I won't try to teach you anything else"

I released her arm and put a hand to my chest, sighing in relief as the tension of the moment passed.

"Thank you so much Rukia, you can't begin to imagine how much this means to me." I looked up at her to find a small smile on her face which made me smile too "So what do we do first?"

"Well _first_ we find a place to practice. Preferably a clearing were we can be sure you won't slam yourself into anything, if you are actually successful in preforming kido, in the case that the kido backfires onto you" she said heading into the forest, with me close on her tail.

"So you really think I can learn kido" giving her a triumphant smirk

"I said I would teach you kido, that doesn't mean you'll be able to use it" she retorted not even bothering to look back at me.

After a good half hour of searching we finally found a clearing big enough to satisfy Rukia, where she then began giving me a very long and detailed speech of the history of kido and how soul reapers came to develop and use it in battle. I just sat on the grass as she paced in front of me, occasionally slipping me a glance to make sure I was still listening. By the end of her lecture I was half asleep supporting my head on my hand and close to falling over.

"Ella…Ella…ELLA!" Rukia practically screamed in my face as I jolted awake.

"What? Are we done with history yet?" I asked while trying to blink away my sleepiness.

"We are now I suppose" Rukia told me as she pulled me to my feet.

"So what do we do now?"

"Well I'm going to teach you a Hado spell, what I want you to do is watch me preform it then try and copy what I do." She looked to me for confirmation and I nodded "I'll also be preforming the incantation, I don't need to do this but for beginners such as you it helps them to focus their power and aim." I nodded once again to let her know I was listening as I kept my focus on her. After a deep breath and putting her hand up in from of her to take aim I listened to her recite the incantation.

"_Oh ruler, mask of flesh and blood, all creations of the universe, fluttering of the wings, ye who bears the name of man! Truth and temperance, strike but slightly your claw upon this wall which feigns ignorance of sin! __**Had**__**o #33 Soukatsui!**__" _

With that a ball of blinding blue energy formed in her hands before it quickly shot across the clearly and hitting a tee dead center; Leaving a large burnt impression on it.

"Okay, now you try" Rukia motioning way for me to stand where she just was. Feeling myself tense up, I quickly shook it off and stepped up next to Rukia, getting my body in position. After a few minor adjustments to my posture, Rukia stepped a few feet away before giving me a slight nod of approval. With that I started the incantation.

"_Oh ruler, mask of flesh and blood, all creations of the universe, fluttering of the wings, ye who bears the name of man! Truth and temperance, strike but slightly your claw upon this wall which feigns ignorance of sin! __**Hado #33 **__**Soukatsui!**__" _

Not even a spark.

I hung my head. Rukia was right, there was no way I could use kido. It just wasn't possible.

"Try again"

I looked up to see Rukia glaring at me. "Are you giving up after one failing attempt, after practically begging me to teach you? I guess I was wrong to in my assumption that you were determined to learn kido." She was practically smirking when she finished. Oh.. She's going to regret those words.

I got into postion again and started repeating the incantation with newfound determination.

"_Oh ruler, mask of flesh and blood, all creations of the universe, fluttering of the wings, ye who bears the name of man! Truth and temperance, strike but slightly your claw upon this wall which feigns __ignorance of sin! __**HADO #33 SOUK**__**ATSUI!**__" _

I stared in shock before me. Though it hadn't been nearly as powerful as Rukia's and missed its intended mark, there was now burned impression on the tree beside the one next to where Rukia had it before.

I did it.

"I did it!" I screamed and pounced a still shell shocked Rukia.

"You actually did it..." Rukia said finally coming out of her daze and prying me off of her. "You, a human, just used kido" saying it as if she still didn't believe it even though she just saw it.

All I could do was grin at her, even though my mind was screaming at me to rub it in her face.

"So _now_ will really teach me some kido or do I have burn more innocent trees first before you'll teach me more?" I said asked her, still clinging to her with a smug grin on my face.

"Uhhhh…fine" she looked at me skeptically but sighed, resigned to the fact that I wasn't going to stop until she agreed "it's past noon though and we've been studying all morning so I say we take a break first then after lunch we can really begin your training" I just nodded at her in response, trying not to seem overly excited. "Great! I'll go grab some lunch from the van. You stay here; I'll be faster on my own." With that she took off before I could even put in a word of protest.

I watched her go, since for once she wasn't using shunpo, but was still too fast for me to catch up with her. As she left I saw something red fall from her shihakusho. I immediately ruled out blood since I knew she wasn't injured, but then what was it? Upon getting closer, I picked it up to find it was a glove. Her glove, the one she used to separate herself from her gigai.

How could she have been so careless as to drop this? At least I had found it and we hadn't lost it. That would have been disastrous.

I looked over the glove again and the flame enveloped skull that was on the back. I stared at the skull before slipping it onto my right hand. It couldn't hurt just to try it on right?

I put my hand up examining the glove in the light; it was hard to believe that this ordinary looking glove possessed any power at all let alone to separate a soul from its body. Wait…

I remembered in that moment when Urahara had trained Ichigo. He had forced his spirit out of his body and forced him to fight, allowing his spirit energy to rise at a rapid rate. Maybe…

I looked at my outstretched hand that had the glove on it, keeping it there. Just studying it, before with one swift motion I slapped myself in the chest with it. Hard.

I fell to the ground, mentally cursing at myself for using so much force, before looking in front of me at my body lying in the grass. Yes! It had worked I thought looking down at myself to fully confirm that it had worked but paled instead.

There was no chain attached to my body.

There was no chain at all.

I stood up shakily looking down at my body, still the same as the way it had been moments ago. Lavender hoodie with torn up old blue jeans, and black converse.

Then I looked down at myself, no hoodie or jeans or converse.

I stared at myself for what felt like hours but was likely only a few seconds before I finally processed what I was wearing.

A shihakusho


End file.
